Uriel Rising
by Spicule
Summary: Post CoHF. As Magnus and Alec's relationship evolves, a new demonic force is felt in New York City. Follow the MIS crew as their world gets turned upside down when the impossible becomes possible. Malec, Sizzy, Clace. Rating will go up.
1. Cryotherapy

A/N: Hello readers! I am new to this fandom and just got this really weird idea for a story. Really weird. This story will be getting into some seriously bizarre places. I will attempt to be somewhat regular with updates, but I make no promises. School tends to make a liar of me.

With that said, enjoy!

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Chapter 1: Cryotherapy

The High Warlock of Brooklyn was supposed to be home an hour ago.

Alec stood at the window watching the street below for any sign of his boyfriend. He sighed and looked down as he felt Chairman Meow rub up against his leg. He bent to pick up the small white cat and absentmindedly started stroking the cat behind the ears.

"Exactly how pissed off do you think he is going to be when he gets home?" Alec asked the cat.

Meow replied by burying his head in the crook of Alec's arm. Alec crossed the apartment and walked into the kitchen, setting the cat down on one of the chairs stationed at the island counter. He reached into the small wine rack and found a bottle of 10 year old Cabernet Sauvignon and went in search of the wine opener. Once located, he opened the bottle of wine with a deep uncorking sound and leaned on the counter as he let the wine breathe. Alec scratched the cat's ears a few times before pulling out two wine glasses and pouring them half full with the dark red liquid.

He sniffed at his glass a few times and took a sip. _Not bad_, he thought as he sat down. "Too bad you can't have any." Chairman Meow just trilled a chirping noise quietly back. "Cheers." Alec raised his glass to his companion just as the door blew open forcefully.

Alec jumped to his feet, carefully setting down his glass. "_Uriel_," he whispered as he pulled a tiny Angel Blade from the necklace he was wearing, watching it glow blue. As he approached the door he noticed scorch marks on the frame, but there was no sign of anyone in the hall. Alec clutched the small dagger in his hand and peered out into the hallway. After seeing no one, he pulled his shoulders back into the apartment.

"What are you doing?"

Alec wheeled around, blade drawn, as Magnus jumped back away from him. "Magnus!" Alec yelped as the warlock held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. He doused the light on the blade and lowered his arm. "You scared the the hell out of me!" Alec implored, clutching at his chest with his free hand.

"I scared you? You just tried to filet me in my own home!"

"I'm sorry, you just almost blew the door down and then I couldn't find you." Alec reattached the dagger to the cord around his neck and let it fall against his chest.

"Sorry, I forgot I was glamoured. I was in a hurry to get home and may have been just a tad too ferocious with the door." Magnus strode over to the door to assess the damage. "Woops." Magnus waved his hands and the door shut quietly, the scorch marks fading to almost nothing.

Alec continued to steady his breathing. "Now that we've sorted that out, want some wine? I poured some for us. I figured you were having a rough day." Magnus smiled.

"I have taught you well young Padawan." Magnus followed Alec into the kitchen. Chairman Meow jumped off the chair and head-butted Magnus' leg. Alec sat down in the vacated seat and gestured to the glasses.

"So, how was your day?" Alec asked, trying to revert to normal.

Magnus flopped down in another chair and and placed the stem of his wineglass between his index and middle fingers, swirling it lightly. "People, well faeries, drive me crazy. They called me in to help them with a spider demon infestation. You'd think they would learn to clean the cellars more carefully, you know? Anyway, when it came time to talk payment they tried to weasel out of it. It took me an hour of threats to finally get it."

Alec took a sip of his wine. "Ah, that's why you were late. Since when do you fight demons for faeries?"

Magnus sighed and looked up slowly at Alec. "Since all of Faerie is wary of the Shadowhunters."

Alec looked away. "Ah." Not knowing what to say next, he took another swig of his wine.

"I've been meaning to ask you, where did you get that dagger? It's terrifying and cute, like you." Magnus winked as he changed the subject none too subtly.

Alec looked down at the Angel Blade. "Izzy had it made for me. It was her birthday present to me. The Iron Sisters are still trying to recruit her for weapons making."

Magnus nodded. "She would be wonderful at that. At any rate, do you still want to go out for date night?" Magnus looked hopefully at Alec.

"Sure, you're not that late. Just let me finish this wine." Alec paused as he looked at Magnus' full glass. "Do you not want yours?"

Magnus looked at the hand that had been playing with the wine as though noticing it for the first time. "Sorry, I was distracted. I'll drink it while we get ready."

"_We_ get ready?" Alec asked.

Magnus nodded. "Yup. It's cold out and we are going to be out in it. Put on something that looks decent and get your coat and scarf. I refuse to go out in public with you in that atrocity you call a sweater." Alec downed the rest of his wine and wandered toward the bedroom.

"Coming?" He asked Magnus who still sat at the table.

"Just a sec." Magnus drained his glass and followed his boyfriend into the bedroom.

Twenty minutes later Alec glanced at the alarm clock that read 6:00 pm in red as he sat at the vanity. Magnus insisted on styling his hair, so Alec just waited for the warlock to finish gelling it.

"There. You look perfect. Let's get going." Magnus literally skipped out of the room as Alec stood up and took in his appearance. His hair had been styled to look carelessly messy and he was wearing nice jeans with no holes, a dark blue long-sleeved shirt that brought out his eyes and some black oxfords. He reached for his charcoal grey pea coat and walked out after Magnus. The warlock had already pulled his long black pea coat over his black button down and red skinny jeans and was holding the door open. "Ready?"

"Yeah I guess. Where are we going?" Alec inquired.

"We have a reservation at that little bistro on 5th Avenue."

"The one by Rockefeller plaza?"

"That's the one." Magnus closed the door behind them and they headed toward the subway.

* * *

Dinner involved a lot of small talk. Magnus asked Alec about his day, which had been full of training and drama.

"You should have heard them Magnus. You'd think that after all the shit that has happened they would learn that not telling each other things is way more dangerous. If Jace tries to pull that 'I can't tell her my feelings because it would be too much for her to handle' business one more time I swear I will slap his so hard Will will feel it."

Magnus laughed at that and continued to fiddle with his silverware as he had been all night. Alec had not failed to notice that Magnus was acting strangely. "That sounds like fun. Please warn me if you decide to go through with it. I would love to see the look on his face."

"Whose, Will's or Jace's?" Alec asked, taking the last bite of his panna cotta.

"Both, honestly. I'm just not sure I would be able to see Will's." Magnus grabbed the check. Alec started to protest. "I was late for date night. Don't you even think about reaching for that wallet." Alec gave up as Magnus handed the waiter the billfold with cash. "Keep the change." Alec and Magnus grabbed their coats and walked back out onto 5th.

"Now what?" Alec asked as Magnus slipped his hand in his.

"Now we are going ice skating."

"WHAT?" Alec asked loudly.

"You heard me. I have never seen you ice skate and the rink is open at the Plaza. No worming your way out of this."

* * *

Alec silently cursed the warlock as they walked to the outdoor rink. Magnus paid for their skate rentals and the pair sat down on a bench. Alec was tying the hockey skates on when he heard a familiar voice.

"Alec? Is that you?" He looked up to see Izzy and Simon strolling towards him and Magnus in their ice skates.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Alec asked as a slight blush crept up his cheeks.

"We just thought it was a nice night to go skating. I haven't been here in years." Simon answered as he linked his arm with Izzy.

"Isn't this cool? It'll be both our first times ice skating!" Izzy's eyes danced as she looked from Alec to Magnus. "Have you ever been skating Magnus?"

Magnus snorted quietly. "Psh, who do you think taught Dick Button to do triples?" Magnus said as he finished lacing up his black figure skates.

The blush on Alec's cheeks deepened. "By the Angel, this is going to be a disaster." He buried his face in his gloved hands.

Magnus just rubbed his boyfriend's back. "Oh come on, it won't be that bad. It's similar to rollerblading."

Alec turned his face to glare at Magnus. "I've never been rollerblading either." Magnus smiled at that.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me. Just bend your knees." Magnus knelt down in front of Alec and finished tying the skates. He stood and offered Alec his hand. "Come on. Let's get out there." Alec grudgingly took Magnus' hand and let him lead him to the door.

"Alec!" Alec froze and glared at Magnus as yet another familiar voice called out behind him.

Alec turned around slowly to see Jace wobbling toward them with Clary in tow. "Hey Jace, Clary. What are you doing here?"

"Simon invited us and Clary decided she wanted to see what a wonderful skater I am."

"Jace, I hate to break it to you, but you've also never been ice skating. At least, as far as I know."

"That may be true, but seeing as I am awesome at most things it's hard to imaging that this will be an exception." Jace smiled as he placed an arm around Clary.

She just rolled her eyes and instead focused on Magnus. "Sorry about him. What brings you two out here?"

"We were just enjoying a quiet evening together." Magnus' smile seemed a little forced. Alec was beginning to worry that Magnus was even less thrilled about the presence of his siblings and their significant others than he was.

"Alright Magnus, let's hit the ice." Alec deflected. Magnus responded by taking his hand and leading him through the door to the rink.

_This isn't so bad_, Alec thought as he completed his third lap around the rink. He was getting the hang of skating fairly quickly.

"You're doing really well," Magnus said beaming at Alec.

"Thanks. It turns out that trying not to die on all the black ice this winter has had its benefits." Alec smiled as Magnus turned backwards and held out his hands. Alec took them and Magnus started skating faster and faster, only looking behind him for other skaters occasionally.

Alec just planted both of his feet firmly on the ice and held on for dear life.

They flew past Simon as he was trying to hold up a laughing Isabelle against gravity. Magnus just winked at Simon as Izzy basically scaled his torso trying to pull herself upright.

Magnus continued to speed up until they met up with Clary and Jace. Magnus turned one foot sideways and slid to a stop, sending a small spray of snow into Jace's hair. Clary was draped on the boards laughing at Jace, who had fallen rather spectacularly trying to make fun of figure skating spins. He was currently trying to get up from his back. Magnus extended a hand to help him up and Jace gladly accepted.

"So what was that about being awesome at this?"

"Shut up Alec," Jace grumbled.

Clary finally managed to straighten up. "Hey Magnus, why don't you show us a trick?"

"With pleasure," Magnus took a sweeping bow before heading to the relatively clear center of the ice.

Alec watched as Magnus took a few backward crossovers and stepped forward into a spin. He felt his jaw drop as Magnus dropped into a perfect sit spin while holding his extended right leg and dropping his head to his knee. He was practically folded in half while spinning very quickly in tight circles. Magnus then stood up and switched feet as he did so, pulling his free left foot toward his standing leg and raising his arms overhead. The spin picked up speed rapidly as he dropped his foot toward the ice. He lifted his left knee and extended his leg behind him to complete the spin. Alec, Jace, Clary, Simon and Isabelle started applauding from their spot near the boards and Magnus, after refocusing his eyes, curtsied and blew kisses their way.

Alec waited as Magnus made his way through the crowd toward the group and pulled him into a hug the instant he could reach. "That was awesome! I had no idea you could do that."

Magnus just smiled back. "Hey, I wasn't kidding about Dick Button. We trained together for a while." Magnus took Alec's hand in his. "Come on, let's keep skating."

Forty minutes later Magnus was attempting to teach Alec some easy tricks. After working on stopping and gliding on one foot, Magnus was attempting to get Alec to skate backwards.

"I can't see where I'm going and I feel like I'm going to kill some unsuspecting kid." Alec tightened his grip on Magnus' hands.

"Don't worry about it. I can see everyone behind you. You have nothing to worry about." Magnus dropped a wink.

"Somehow I am not feeling reassured," Alec mumbled as he looked down at his skates, trying to force his legs to do the backward 'swizzles' as Magnus called them.

"Here, let's switch." Magnus grabbed Alec around the waist and spun them so that now Magnus was skating backwards. Alec braced himself again as Magnus started skating quickly. "You know I love you, right?"

Alec nodded, unsure of where this was coming from.

"And you know that there is no one in the world who makes me happier." Alec noticed that Magnus was leading him to the middle of the ice and started to panic.

"Uh Magnus, what's going on? You're starting to freak me out a little." Alec suddenly had visions of this conversation going badly.

"Just hear me out." Magnus had stopped them at center ice. "I love you and I want you to understand that I would do anything to make you see just how much I do. There aren't enough words in all the languages I know to express how much I love you, but I do know one thing that will make you understand."

He paused, looking intently at the beautiful blue eyes he loved so much. "Alexander Gideon Lightwood," he paused, "will you marry me?" And with that, he dropped to one knee and pulled out a little black box from his coat pocket.

Alec stood frozen for just a moment as his brain attempted to process what had just happened. He had been fairly sure he was about to get dumped all night, from the time Magnus started fiddling with his wine to the moment he started saying 'You know I love you'. He stared at Magnus on one knee before him and a grin started to spread across his face. He started nodding slowly. "Yes," he paused, "Yes I will marry you." As Alec reached down and kissed Magnus, still kneeling, applause could be heard all around them. Alec pulled back blushing furiously to see that the whole rink was clapping for them. Magnus stood swiftly and slid the ring on his left ring finger.

Magnus pulled Alec in for a hug. "You have made me the happiest man on Earth tonight." Alec couldn't help but smile as Magnus kissed him again.

* * *

Reviews are like candy to me. Please give me some?


	2. Chelation

**A/N: So I warned you that the rating would go up. Get ready for my first attempt at a lemon, sorry if it sucks. Finals are coming up (and some occurred this week) so this story will continue to be updated seemingly at random. My apologies. I would also like to thank those of you who reviewed. Reviews are what keep me going. Please keep them coming.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this. I'm just not that creative.**

* * *

Several hours later Alec and Magnus stumbled through the front door of their apartment, feverishly exchanging kisses. Alec kicked the door shut behind them and continued shamelessly kissing his fiancee. Alec giggled slightly.

"What's so funny?" Magnus broke the kiss to look at his laughing Shadowhunter.

"I just thought about how we're actually engaged. It's just crazy."

"I know darling."

Alec resumed kissing Magnus while guiding him to the bedroom. The pair sank onto the bed with Alec on top. The Shadowhunter deftly undid Magnus's shirt buttons and trailed kisses down his smooth chest. Alec pinned his lover's hands to the bed as he nipped at and kissed Magnus's nipples, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from the warlock. He then trailed more kisses up toward Magnus's mouth and continued on to tease the warlock's ears. The sound of Alec's ragged breaths and the feeling of teeth on the sensitive skin of his ear made shivers run down Magnus's spine. Alec turned his attention to the warlock's other ear, forcing Magnus to turn his head the other way. Satisfied that he had Magnus sufficiently keyed up, Alec worked his way down his lover's body until he reached the top of his partner's pants and managed to undo his button and zipper with his teeth. Alec hooked his fingers around the loosened waist band and started working the pants off Magnus. The warlock facilitated by lifting his hips so Alec could fully remove the article of clothing. Alec, somewhat dramatically, threw the pants across the room with a smile. Magnus sat up to meet the kneeling Alec and hugged him around the waist. Alec reached down and captured Magnus's lips once again. The Shadowhunter reached down and started tugging Magnus's open shirt the rest of the way off his body. Magnus extended his arms behind him to help shrug off the shirt.

"You know, this seems a little unfair."

Alec responded with a smile and a shrug before Magnus held him close and flipped the pair over so the warlock was hovering over his lover. "Your turn." Magnus had a slightly predatory look in his eyes as he laced his fingers through Alec's hair and kissed him passionately. The warlock snapped his fingers and magically whisked away all of Alec's clothing.

"Ok, now who's being unfair?" Alec asked while rubbing his hands along his arms trying to warm up. Magnus grabbed Alec's hands, pulled them away from his body, and started languidly kissing him. He wrapped his lover's arms around his back and reached for the back of the Shadowhunter's neck and started trailing kisses down his throat. He continued down Alec's body with his kisses and started lightly dragging his fingertips over his lover's erection. "Really, really unfair..." Alec's breath was coming in ragged gasps as he arched into the contact slightly. Magnus gripped with more force and took Alec into his mouth. Magnus put his right hand up to his mouth while gripping Alec to increase the amount of his lover he could stimulate. He began to bob up and down, eliciting a wanton moan from Alec. Magnus smiled slightly at the sounds the Shadowhunter was making and continued his ministrations.

"Magnus..." Alec whispered.

"Eek!"

"Magnus, what the hell?" That had not been the reaction Alec was expecting. Magnus was bolt upright holding his left foot.

"Damn you, you voyeuristic animal!" Chairman Meow had snuck in through the open bedroom door and had bitten Magnus on the ankle. Magnus scooped up the cat against his bare torso and carried him out of the room, plopping him unceremoniously on the floor and locking him out of the bedroom. He turned back to the bed and saw Alec laughing with abandon. Magnus himself chuckled slightly.

"I can't believe we didn't notice he was in here. We would be terrible parents. At least the cat won't be scarred for life after walking in on us doing that," Alec said.

"Too true darling." Magnus took a running leap at the bed and landed straddling Alec. "Now where were we?"

Magnus resumed slowly kissing Alec while simultaneously reaching for the bottle of lube on the nightstand. He slicked some over his own erection and used what was left on his fingers to prep Alec.

"Are you ready?" Magnus's green-gold eyes met his lover's blue ones as Alec nodded. Magnus lined himself up and slowly entered his lover, feeling Alec tense up slightly. He slowly started moving, giving Alec time to adjust. Alec wrapped his arms around Magnus and started to lightly run his nails up and down the warlock's back. Satisfied that he would not hurt Alec, Magnus increased his pace and changed the angle of his thrusts by placing the surprisingly flexible Shadowhunter's legs over his shoulders. Alec laughed quietly again.

"What's so funny?" Magnus asked.

"I just kind of feel like some weird toy whenever you start moving my body around without any help from me is all."

"What? I don't get to enjoy the fact that I can do this to you?"

"No, it's not a bad thing. It just amuses me."

"I live to be amusing." Magnus ended the conversation by kissing Alec deeply once again. As Magnus made repeated contact with the sensitive bundle of nerves, Alec's back arched off the bed. The warlock eventually put Alec's legs back down on the bed so that he could change their position. Like a carefully choreographed dance that had been well rehearsed, Alec flipped onto his stomach and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and let Magnus enter him once again. Once Magnus started to get a rhythm going, Alec allowed his knees to splay out to his sides and dropped to his elbows to allow his erection to contact the comforter and increase the sensations running through his body. Magnus tugged Alec's hair, making the Shadowhunter's neck flex to the right. Magnus kissed the exposed left side of Alec's neck, leaving a sizable hickey behind. "You are so beautiful," Magnus whispered in Alec's ear causing him to visibly shudder. Magnus trailed one hand down Alec's stomach and started stroking his lover's length. Alec bit his lip and groaned slightly.

"You're going to make me come if you keep doing that."

"That is the general idea, darling," Magnus purred.

Alec reached through his own legs and managed to start stroking the back side of Magnus's testicles, occasionally pressing against his perineum.

"Oh God Alec." Alec couldn't help but smile as Magnus started panting and started thrusting even harder. Eventually it became too difficult for Alec to keep stretching his shoulder out, so he brought his arm back to allow him to lean on both elbows once again. Alec could feel the pressure start to build.

"Magnus...I'm almost there..." Alec could feel himself starting to lose control.

"Come for me baby."

Alec's hands gripped the comforter and felt his toes point as his orgasm overtook him and he cried out, his eyes closed.

"That sounded amazing," Magnus huffed out, his own orgasm building.

"Your turn," Alec whispered as he once again reached back for Magnus and stroked him a few times until he felt his lover tense up and bite down on the Shadowhunter's shoulder as he came.

The pair remained in that position for a moment trying to catch their breath before Magnus pulled out of Alec and snapped his fingers, replacing the comforter with another one that was kept in the hall closet. Alec's legs were shaking as he collapsed the rest of the way onto the bed. Magnus stood up and left for a moment to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. Alec looked about the room in an attempt to locate his clothes. After about a minute he sighed and got up to retrieve a different pair of boxers than the ones he started the night out with. Magnus returned to the room and Alec traded places with him, readying himself for bed. Once done, Alec returned to find Magnus completely starfishing the bed, his arms and legs sprawled out in a way that covered most of the mattress. Magnus grumbled as Alec tried to shove him more to one side.

"Come on, let me in. I want to get some sleep." He only received more grumbles in reply as Magnus slowly shifted over to the left side of the bed. Alec peeled back the covers and joined his fiancee. Magnus snapped his fingers and doused all the light in the room save the moonlight. After allowing his eyes to adjust for a moment, Alec stared at the ring adorning his left hand. The ring itself was made of heavy dark stone which varied in color from swathes of black to midnight blue to a dark purple. The ring was then speckled with small white crystals of varying sizes, giving the ring the appearance of stars in the night sky.

"Do you like it?" Magnus turned himself on his side to face Alec.

"I love it Magnus. It's beautiful. Where did you get it?" His eyes searched for Magnus's in the darkness.

"Remember my quarrel with the faeries about payment?" Alec nodded. "This was it. They tried to swap it out with a different ring made of gold, but I wouldn't hear of it. I had this made especially for you."

Alec felt his chest tighten and cleared his throat, blinking back tears. "Wow. Thank you so much Magnus. I feel like I should get you an engagement ring now." Magnus chuckled.

"Well I wouldn't say no to new jewelry."

"I figured as much. I love you, Magnus."

"I love you too Alec." The pair settled down in each other's arms.

* * *

Alec jerked awake to the sound of his phone going off on the nightstand. He glanced at the clock which read 12:12 am. He groaned and sat up.

"Don't answer it. Tell Jace to leave you alone for once." Magnus murmured as he tried to pull the Shadowhunter back under the covers.

"I have to get this," Alec said, answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Alec, we have a situation. Demonic activity has been reported at a brothel in one of the financial building complexes and..."

"Wait, wait. A brothel? In a financial district? Please tell me you're kidding."

"Alec, I never kid about this. Hurry up and get dressed. We'll pick you up in five minutes" With that, Jace hung up and Alec fell back against the pillows.

"Let me guess, you have to leave me now." Alec just nodded solemnly and heaved himself upright, gathering his gear. Magnus watched his fiancee as he pulled on his black pants and began the search for his boots. Alec started mumbling as he tied his laces. "What was that? I didn't quite catch that."

"I said I can't believe Jace wants to go demon hunting after midnight. This is ridiculous," Alec huffed and got to his feet. "And I really really don't want to go."

"Then don't. Stay here with me." Magnus stood up and held Alec against his body. The warlock felt Alec smile against him.

"If only I could." Magnus sighed.

"I love you Alec. Please come back to me in one piece," Magnus whispered in Alec's ear.

"I will. I promise."

"You had better." Alec pulled back and kissed Magnus lightly on the lips. He walked over to the dresser and grabbed his weapons, bow in hand.

"I have to go. I'll be back. Don't wait up."

"Knock 'em dead, darling." Alec smiled as he walked out of the apartment and out to meet his friends.

* * *

Clary idled by the curb waiting for Alec to come down. Luke had given in and bought Clary a used van to haul her friends around in for demon hunts after the fifth time she brought his truck back with the interior covered in ichor and Shadowhunter blood. The full size van was difficult to park, but it held all of the Shadowhunters and their weapons. The first thing she and Simon did when Luke showed her the van was outfit it with a first aid kit and cover the whole interior with plastic coverings to make clean up easier. Jace sat impatiently in the passenger seat, fidgeting with his phone.

"He'll be down in a second. It's not his fault you said 5 minutes when we were 30 seconds away." Jace sighed.

"I guess. He better not be playing tonsil hockey with his boyfriend."

"You mean fiancee," Isabelle piped up from one of the two middle row seats.

"Fine, he better not be playing tonsil hockey with his fiancee. Sheesh."

"Am I the only one who was surprised at the lack of glitter or fireworks? I kind of figured if Magnus ever proposed he would have written 'Will you marry me?' in small explosions of rainbows over the Brooklyn bridge or something," Simon said from the seat next to Isabelle.

"He wanted it to be perfect for Alec. I'm pretty sure he would die of embarrassment if Magnus did something like that."

"Something like what?" Alec asked Izzy as he slid open the door.

"We were just discussing other ways Magnus might have tried to propose to you," Clary said as she adjusted her rearview mirror.

"Oh," was Alec's only response as he crawled between Izzy and Simon to get to the back bench seat.

"Hey Alec, let me see your ring. I didn't get a good look at the rink," Izzy reached her hand back toward her brother as he placed his hand in hers. "This is freaking gorgeous. Where did he get it?"

"Faeries. He did a job for them and asked for this as payment."

"That is too adorable," Clary said as she turned the van left.

"All this talk of rings is boring. Why do you girls even care? It's not like you got proposed to," Jace said as he rolled his eyes.

"First of all Jace, I am not a girl. Second, I have a legitimate question. Do either of the two of you lovely ladies think I should get Magnus a ring? I know it's not the usual and customary thing to do, but...I don't know. I think Magnus might really like an engagement ring."

Isabelle squealed slightly. "Yes. Oh my God, yes. You should totally get him one. It should be sparkly enough to induce seizures. If you can find one that also lights up that would be perfect."

Clary laughed. "Or you could just get him one with more diamonds than a mine. I bet he'd like that just as much." Jace just clapped his hand over his eyes and groaned at the conversation. Clary sighed at him and focused on trying to find a parking space big enough for the van.

Alec took his hand back from his sister and reached for his quiver and bow. "It's ok Jace, you can uncover your eyes. Any idea what type of demons we're facing here?"

Jace turned in his seat as Clary bumped against the curb slightly with the tires. "Nope. A call just came to the Institute saying that there was some demonic activity. They didn't say anything specific."

"Great. I love surprises," Alec said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Alright, everybody out," Clary announced, killing the engine.

The group piled out of the van and gathered up their weapons. They walked up to an unassuming three story grey brick building nestled in between steel and glass buildings that housed various businesses. The sign on the front said Heavenly Massage.

"A brothel posing as a massage parlor? How original," Simon snarked.

"A house of sin hiding behind the word 'heaven'. I think it's kind of poetic," Isabelle smirked.

"I believe you do have a point," Simon said as he looped an arm around her shoulders.

"Enough you two. Let's go," Jace said as he led the group to the front door. He pulled out his stele and drew an unlocking rune on the door and pulled the door open, waving everyone inside. The group walked down a hallway that opened up into a large central room. The only lights on in the building were the emergency lights over the doors. In the expansive room a few couches were placed in a square around a coffee table covered with pornographic magazines. A square cut out in the wall to the right had a desk and chairs behind it. There were two staircases leading to the second floor, which was little more than a hallway that ran along all four sides of the central room. There were doors spaced at regular intervals coming off the hallway with a wooden railing covering the open side.

"Well that's an interesting set up. I wonder if the walls are soundproof..." Clary mused out loud.

"How should we do this? I don't hear anything," Simon said.

"Let's try going upstairs," Jace said as he raised his witchlight, illuminating the way. The group followed quietly up the stairs.

"Should we each try a door?" Isabelle asked, her whip in hand.

"One at a time. Clary, you go first," Jace stated.

Clary approached the door in front of her. She pulled out her Angel Blade and whispered. "Ithuriel." It was her favorite angel name to use. She gripped the door handle in her sweaty hands and felt the others press closer to her, ready to strike if necessary. She pulled the door open quickly and glanced around. There was a massage table in the center of the room and a mattress against the left wall. Everything was still in the room and she let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "There's nothing in here."

"Ok good. Izzy, you're..." Jace paused as he heard a noise to his right. He locked eyes with Alec just before he was pulled into a room by an unseen force.

"Jace!" He heard his parabatai yell as the door slammed shut.

Alec kicked at the door trying to get to Jace. "Jace! Jace, can you hear me?" Alec reached for his stele as he heard a scream and whirled around to see Simon and Clary get sucked into the next room. "No!" He screamed again as the door once again slammed in his face. He turned to meet Izzy's stricken face just in time to see her get sucked into a third room, leaving him standing alone in the hallway. His breathing began coming in fast gasps as he heard a door at the end of the hall creak open. Alec walked toward the open door, his bow fitted with an arrow ready to let fly. He walked into the seemingly empty room and heard the door slam shut behind him and the lock turn.

* * *

Jace didn't know what the hell had happened, only that he couldn't open the door even with an unlocking rune. He searched the room frantically for any indication of what had pulled him into the room. He looked under the bed and the massage table and found nothing. There was no sign of any demon in the room with him. He pulled out his Angel Blade and whispered its name, aware that he could not hear anything from outside the room. The blade cast its blue light across the floorboards, and he noticed what appeared to be a trapdoor. He tucked the blade into the seam and pried it up, causing it to creak loudly. He looked down into the trapdoor and found a set of spiral stairs going straight down. Realizing that this may well be a trap, he added a mark to his right arm for bravery and began his descent. He felt like he was walking down the middle of a tube since the walls were close around the staircase. He kept one hand on the wall and the other firmly around his blade as he reached the bottom stair and a door. He took a deep breath and broke the door down with a kick. He felt himself get swooped up into the air as a demon sank its claws into his shoulder and beat its wings. He looked up to see what appeared to be a giant vulture with fangs sticking off its beak. The great winged beast gave a cry as it flew higher in the room that they had started out in. Jace took a swing at the claw that held him, cutting off the demon's leg with his Angel Blade. The demon screeched as Jace dropped to the ground and tucked into a roll on impact.

He came up on his feet in time to see more winged creatures enter the room carrying Simon and Clary. Simon had been picked up by the back of his gear and he was swinging his arms wildly trying to reach the creature with the knife in his hand. Jace pulled out a throwing dagger and launched it at the demon, piercing it through the eye. It unceremoniously dropped Simon to the ground, barely giving Simon the opportunity to roll awkwardly to try and absorb the impact of the fall. Jace and Simon turned their attention to the beast that held Clary. She had only her stele in her hand and was furiously burning something into the creature's belly. The demon made a choking noise as it suddenly burst into flames and dropped the redhead. She landed in a crouch just as a fourth winged demon entered the room with Isabelle. Izzy's demon was flying rather badly as Izzy had somehow managed to snare its neck with her whip as it held her in its claws. She guided it to the ground and Simon cut through its neck with an Angel Blade. Clary's demon fell to the ground in flames and folded in on itself as it disappeared. The four looked around at each other as the two injured demons continued to circle them like buzzards around a kill.

"What the hell are those Jace?" Clary asked.

"No idea, never seen them before. They aren't very bright though." Jace said.

Izzy dispatched of another one with a flick of her whip. "Don't say stuff like that. You'll just invite the universe to fuck with us," she said as Clary threw a dagger at the other demon, landing a solid hit to its heart.

"Too true." The four Shadowhunters had been distracted by the last flying demon and had failed to notice the five Eidolan demons that entered the room. They were currently in the shape of humans and began to advance on the group of Shadowhunters. Clary pulled Ithuriel out again as the group formed a line against the advancing demons. "You all look positively delicious," said the demon closest to Jace. At that, the demons all shifted shapes. Where only "humans" stood there was now a bear, a tiger, a lion, an anaconda and a rhinoceros.

Clary gulped. "What now?" she whispered.

"Get to stabbing," Jace said as he lunged toward the tiger. Everything became a blur as the Shadowhunters clashed with the demons in front of them. Izzy managed to wrap her whip around the anaconda and began to pull it tightly. Th snake merely hissed and wrapped itself around her feet. Izzy pulled out a knife and jammed it into the snake's body, ichor spilling out of the wound as she drew the knife back.

"Jace!" Izzy yelled as she saw the rhino start to charge at his back. Jace whirled around from his battle with the tiger which was bleeding from a cut above its eye. Jace jumped straight up and managed to catch a dangling light fixture as the rhino bowled over the tiger. The tiger snarled at the other demon as the fake chandelier gave way and Jace fell into the pile of demons. Clary and Simon were back to back fighting off the lion and bear. The demons took turns diving at them, causing Clary's Angel Blade to clash with the bear's teeth as Simon managed to cut a shallow gash in the side of the lion's throat. Simon rolled away from the charging lion, turned around and cut off one of the bear's paws. The bear reared back and swiped at Simon, knocking him to the ground dizzy. Clary shouted something as both the lion and bear charged at her. Simon tried desperately to get to his feet and help his friend as an arrow came from nowhere and buried itself in the back of the bear's neck. The demon stumbled and fell as Clary plowed her sword through the lion's mouth and out the back of its skull. More arrows flew and sank into the tiger's eye, dropping the creature on top of the pinned Jace. As it disappeared, Jace stabbed straight up as the rhino tried to take the tiger's place and caught the beast in the abdomen. Consecutive arrows buried themselves in the anaconda's long body as it looped its body around Izzy's neck. Izzy felt the pressure lessen around her and took her first proper breath in five minutes. Clary sliced the snake clear in half, delivering a slight scratch along Izzy's back. Clary caught Izzy as she stumbled forward away from the retracting form of the snake. Simon grabbed Jace's hand and helped him up as Alec ran down the stairs.

"Is everybody ok?" Alec yelled as reached the floor. Izzy's hand flew to her mouth as she took in her brother's appearance. Red blood ran down his right arm from multiple small cuts in his shoulder that were visible through his shredded gear. Twin stab wounds that tore completely through the center of his hands dripped blood onto the floor and had clearly left blood on his bow. His shirt was rucked up on one side and his pants were torn along both knees revealing bloody scrapes. His tiny angel blade hung outside of his shirt and was covered in black ichor.

"We're fine Alec, but what in the name of the Angel happened to you?" Izzy reached out to touch his face, which sported a cut on his lip and the side of his cheek, and he flinched away.

"My room was full of demons. What happened to you guys?" Alec's eyes darted to his companions.

"My room was empty, but I followed the stairs down and got picked up by something with wings," Jace answered. "How did you even hold that bow and knock arrows with your hands like that?" Jace asked as he took in his parabatai's appearance.

"Adrenaline?" Alec replied.

"Are there any more demons in here?" Clary asked. Simon pulled out his sensor and waited. It made no response.

"I think we're all clear. Can we go home now?" Simon asked as his vision swam slightly. "I think I may have a concussion."

"Yeah, let's get out of here. Clary are you ok to drive?" Alec asked.

"I'm fine," she said as she fished out her keys. "We'll drop you off first, Alec." Alec nodded in response, fatigue finally settling in. "And Alec?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for the save. That was awesome," Clary said, smiling.

"Yeah no problem." Alec looked down at his shoes and started limping toward the door. Clary followed Jace out and Izzy supported the still-dizzy Simon out of the building.

They resumed their original positions in the car as Clary started the van. Alec laid his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes as Clary pulled out of the parking space. He felt the seat dip and cracked his eyes open to see that Izzy had joined him.

"Here, let me give you and iratze," she said as she took his bloodied hand in hers. He felt the familiar sting of a rune being burned into the crook of his left elbow. The cuts above his cheek and lip started to heal. He laid his head back against the seat once again.

"Why aren't the rest of these healing?" Izzy gestured to his hands and shoulder.

"I think the knife may have been made of demon metal," was Alec's whispered reply.

"Demon metal? One of the demons you faced had a knife?" Alec just nodded slightly as he felt himself begin to drift off. "Alec? Alec, are you ok?" He heard his sister ask frantically. He felt as though a weight was pressing down on his body as the car came to a stop.

"Izzy," he forced his eyes open, "wake Magnus," he said as he went limp.

"Jace! Help me!" Izzy yelled, causing Jace to vault to the back of the van. He and Izzy each hooked one of Alec's arms over their shoulders as Simon opened the door of the van for them. Clary climbed out of the driver's side door and held down the buzzer for Magnus's apartment.

"WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER?!" boomed a voice through the intercom.

"Magnus, it's Alec. He's hurt. Let us up!" Clary yelled back as Izzy and Jace hauled Alec's mostly limp form to the door. There was a buzz and Clary yanked the door open for the trio. Simon followed them in and swiftly shut the door behind him. Jace ducked under Alec and heaved him up onto his shoulder to carry him up the stairs. Izzy placed a hand on Jace's back to stabilize him as he went up the stairs. Magnus stood waiting in the doorway as the group reached the landing.

"Put him on the table, I have everything ready," Magnus said as they rushed past him. Jace gently placed Alec's legs on the rectangular dining table that had been draped with a black tablecloth and gingerly guided his parabatai's body down to the surface. Alec made a small whimpering noise as Magnus and the others arrived at his side.

"What the hell happened to him?" Magnus growled as he began mixing potion ingredients together.

"We have no idea. He got separated from us and just showed up bleeding everywhere. I don't even know what demon he encountered, but iratzes aren't working," Izzy answered. Magnus finished his potion and gently lifted Alec into a half-sitting position.

"Here, babe. Drink this." Magnus held the potion up to the boy's lips. Alec managed to barely open his eyes and take a few gulps from the glass.

"What is that?" Clary asked wringing her hands.

"It will help chelate the poison in his system. It allows me to use a little less magic to detox him." With that, he laid Alec back down on the table and began making blue sparks with his hands. He ran his hands over Alec's body and took a deep breath. Magnus concentrated on the feeling from the poison that was pumping through Alec's body. He began gathering the poison into Alec's stomach where the potion was currently residing. Alec's breathing hitched and his back arched off the table. Magnus quickly grabbed a rag that had soaked in peppermint leaf tea and shoved it in Alec's mouth to prevent him from screaming. Alec began to make more whimpering noises as his body shook violently. "Shh baby, it's ok. It's going to be alright. Just hang in there for me. Just a few more minutes and I promise it will all be over. Shh," Magnus cooed, vaguely aware that Simon had run to vomit in his kitchen trash can. Clary ran over to make sure her parabatai was alright. Simon and Izzy each pinned Alec to the table as his shaking got more intense. Magnus felt sweat start to form on his forehead as he quickly continued to focus the poison in his lover's stomach. "Come on, almost there." Alec's eyes were rolling back in his head as Magnus removed the rag in his mouth and pulled the potion out of the Shadowhunter's body with his magic. The formerly blue potion poured out of Alec's mouth and into a bucket stashed next to the table, the color having changed to an inky black. Alec collapsed back against the table and Jace and Izzy slowly let go of him. Magnus snapped his fingers and conjured a chair that he collapsed into. The warlock wiped his face with the back of his shirt sleeve and looked on at his fiancee laying still on the table.

"Alec?" Izzy said, unshed tears in her eye. "Alec, honey, are you ok?" She reached for one of his gashed hands and jumped as he pulled it away from her.

"Jace, how about an iratze now?" Magnus asked, sounding exhausted. Jace reached over with his stele and traced an iratze on Alec's neck by the wound in his shoulder. He watched on as the skin began to knit back together. He looked down at Alec's hands and frowned.

"These still won't heal," he said.

"He said they were made by demon metal knives. I've never seen a demon armed with a knife before," Izzy observed. Magnus scooted the chair closer to the table and grabbed one of Alec's hands. Blue sparks danced from his hands once again as he set to healing the stab wounds. He pulled back and noticed that there was still an ugly scar.

"My magic is pretty drained, but he probably won't mind the scars too much," Magnus said, reaching across the table to heal Alec's other hand. Simon and Clary returned, a fresh iratze drawn on Simon's arm. "How are you feeling, pukey?"

"Better. Sorry about your garbage can. I can take that out if you want," Simon offered.

Magnus just snapped his fingers. "Don't worry about it." At that moment, Alec stirred. "Alec?"

The whole group crowded around the table as Alec scrunched up his eyes and touched his face with his hand. He slowly opened his blue eyes and blinked away the dizziness. "You ok man?" Jace asked.

"I...I think so," Alec looked bone tired with dark circles under his eyes. He tried to sit up and found a hand resting on his shoulder, pinning him.

"Slow down, tiger. No need to get up just yet," Magnus said as Alec laid back down. Magnus snapped another damp rag into his hand and set to cleaning the dried blood off the Shadowhunter's face.

"What happened?"

"You tried to die on me less than 12 hours after we got engaged. At this rate I will need to marry you later today just so I can say we got hitched before you off yourself in some way." The smile never touched Magnus's eyes.

"I'm sorry Magnus. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You scared all of us. Mind telling us what the hell happened to you? What Greater Demon got ahold of you this time?" Jace asked pointedly.

"I told you, I walked into a whole room of demons. It wasn't any one specific species that got me. I'm just lucky I made it out in time to save all your sorry asses." Alec closed his eyes again briefly. Magnus snapped Alec's shirt off in order to clean the mess around his shoulder. Alec shivered at the cold. "Magnus, you don't have to do that. I should just hop in the shower."

"You are not hopping into anything, darling. You are going straight to bed," Magnus moved on to Alec's hands.

"But Magnus, I'm disgusting. I don't want to ruin the covers!"

"Don't even think about it. The last thing I need is for you to pass out in the shower and hit your head. Don't worry about the covers, they're not a big deal." Magnus's tone stopped Alec from replying with a smart remark.

"I'm sorry Magnus. I promised to come back to you in one piece and I can't even do that properly," Alec smiled weakly at the warlock.

"Somehow I will find it in my heart to forgive you. Jace, can you get him to bed?"

"I can walk on my own, I'm not a baby," Alec protested.

"No one said you are, man. Now shut up and let me coddle you," Jace said as he scooped Alec up bridal style and hauled him to bed.

Magnus looked around at the remaining Shadowhunters and took in their battle-worn faces. "None of you are fit to go anywhere. Just stay in my guest rooms for the night. It's already 3:00 am."

Clary looked at Magnus and smiled, "Thank you. I would have probably crashed the van into a pole or something." She went to get Jace and dragged him into one of the spare bedrooms as Izzy led the still somewhat dazed Simon into the other one. Magnus sighed and went to join Alec in bed once again. Alec was still conscious when Magnus entered. Magnus slipped under the covers with his fiancee and hugged him to his chest.

"Never, ever scare me like that again."

"I'll try my best, Magnus."

Magnus pressed his lips to Alec's forehead and held him tighter. "I never should have let you leave this bed. In fact, I may never let you leave this apartment again."

Alec chuckled at that. "Ok Magnus. Whatever you say." The pair drifted off to sleep once again, and once again they stayed locked in each other's arms.

* * *

**Please review. Reviews give me renewed hope that the world does not entirely suck.**


	3. Pavor Nocturnus

**A/N: Hello readers :) I am sorry for the long stretch in between updates. Life has been crazy. Finals happened and I moved and yeah, sorry. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who reviewed, especially Alexandra. That kind of review makes me want to update as often as physically possible. **

**Read, review, enjoy!**

* * *

**Pavor Nocturnus**

The first thing he was aware of was the pounding in his head. Alec blearily opened his eyes and immediately shut them after bright light assaulted him. He groaned and reached a hand up to his face as though he could remove the pain with such a gesture. His second attempt to open his eyes was only marginally more successful as he took a deep breath to quell his rising nausea. Alec reached out toward the other side of the bed and found it devoid of his fiancee. Taking a few more calming breaths, Alec heaved himself to a sitting position and placed his head in his hands.

The Shadowhunter rested in that position for a few more moments before propelling himself to his feet. Alec remembered that he was still disgusting from the previous night and forced himself to stumble into the shower.

He left the lights off as he peeled off the gear he had slept in and stepped into the cool water. Leaning against the wall for the majority of the time, Alec managed to get most of the grime off his body. He turned off the water and grabbed his towel off the rack and set to drying himself using as little movement as physically possible. He quickly brushed his teeth with the towel draped around his waist, trying to avoid looking in the mirror in the relative darkness. He walked slowly back to the bedroom in search of fresh clothes and settled for a faded black tee shirt and dark blue basketball shorts. Feeling a little less disgusted with himself, Alec made his way to the kitchen.

After the group had returned from Idris last year, Alec had insisted that they all at least attempt to learn how to cook. He had bought several cook books and started teaching himself the basics, intriguing his friends and siblings. Magnus had even joined them in an attempt to cut down on the amount of food he snapped into the apartment, so when Alec entered the kitchen he was only mildly surprised to see Magnus at the stove. There was a plate full of bacon and another pan sizzling away filled with chopped up potato wedges and onions sautéing in bacon grease. Still on the counter was a bowl with a dozen eggs waiting to be whisked.

Alec walked up behind Magnus silently and wrapped his arms around the warlock, resting his chin on his fiancee's shoulder.

"How are you feeling?"

"Please kill me," was Alec's reply.

"That good, huh? I made coffee already and there are two aspirin and water waiting for you on the table."

"Thanks Magnus, you're the best."

"Don't I know it," Magnus smiled as he removed more pieces of bacon from the pan.

Alec dropped his arms from Magnus's lanky form and wandered toward the coffee maker. He poured himself a cup and added some sugar, stirring it as he made his way to the table. He plunked down in the chair with the perfect post-demon-poisoning place setting and quickly bolted the pills and the entire glass of water. He was just taking his first sips of coffee as Clary made her way to the kitchen.

"I thought I smelled coffee," she said as she grabbed a cup. "Magnus, breakfast looks awesome."

Magnus winked at her as he whisked the eggs and put them in the now-devoid-of-bacon pan. "They don't call me 'Magnificent' for nothing."

Clary took her mug of coffee to the table and sat down next to Alec. "How are you feeling?"

"Just peachy," he responded taking a sip of his drink.

Clary reached a hand out to touch his cheek, rubbing her thumb over the dark circles under his eyes. Alec's eyes met hers at the uncharacteristically caring gesture. "Would you like an _iratze_?" Clary pulled her stele out from the pocket of her shorts.

"Sure," Alec replied, holding out his arm. Clary applied the mark on the inside of his wrist. Alec instantly felt slightly better once she finished. "Thanks."

"Any time. All you have to do is ask and I'll use my badass rune mojo on you. It's the least I can do."

Alec took another sip of his coffee. "Least you can do?" He asked, puzzled.

"You know," Clary rolled her eyes, "Seeing as you swooped in and saved us last night. Besides, I feel like we should be closer friends. The most we've done so far is hang out near each other."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. So if I ask you to invent a rune to give me the power to make Jace shut up, you'd do it?"

"Sure, I'll get right on that. I'll also start on one to make myself taller." Clary winked at Alec who tossed his head back and laughed. At that moment Isabelle and Simon walked out of their room. Simon came and sat down by Alec and Clary as Isabelle grabbed two coffee mugs.

"Breakfast is ready!" Magnus declared with a flourish holding the plate of bacon out to Isabelle. She took it from the warlock and curtsied.

"Magnus, forget my brother. Marry me?" Izzy's blinked her wide black eyes at Magnus as she fake-proposed.

"Now now darling, I am already betrothed. Besides, if you want epic breakfasts so badly we can just make this a weekly thing."

Isabelle sighed loudly. "Just my luck, rebuffed by an older gentleman. Much bacon will be consumed in an attempt to drown my sorrow." She walked the plate of bacon and coffee mugs over to the table. Magnus snapped the rest of breakfast and plates and silverware to the table.

"I'll wake Jace up. He'll be pissed if he doesn't get any food," Clary said as she walked back toward the rooms. She returned a moment later with a bedraggled Jace in tow, his hair sticking up at odd angles.

"Wow. I never thought I'd see the day you looked like shit. What happened, long night?" Simon dropped a wink as he teased Jace.

Jace calmly sat down and started nibbling on a piece of bacon. "Yeah, it was a rough night. Your mom is a wild ride." The rest of the table erupted into laughter at the incredulous look on Simon's face.

Isabelle was the first to recover. "All right, no more out of the two of you. I want to enjoy this." The table went silent as everyone started eating.

Alec managed to eat a little of everything but avoided taking more than one helping in an attempt to prevent digestive backlash. He leaned back, watching Simon and Jace have a fork duel over the last piece of bacon. He downed the last of his coffee and took his dishes to the sink. Normally Alec and Magnus had a system where the person who cooked was absolved of doing dishes, but Alec was still feeling ill.

Shirking his duty, he made his way slowly to the couch. This week the couch was an overstuffed cream colored piece with recliners on either end and a matching love seat in the living room. He sank into the soft cushions and pulled a blanket over himself, curling into a ball and burying his head in the cushions. He was just drifting off when he heard light footsteps approaching his place of rest.

"Are you ok?" Isabelle asked.

"I'm fine Izzy. I just need more sleep. Maybe I don't heal as fast in my old age," Alec opened his eyes and saw Izzy's lips quirk up at the corners.

"Alright, we'll leave you to it. Text me when you feel better." With that, she walked out of the room. Alec heard the front door open as the remaining guests walked out of the apartment. Alec closed his eyes again.

"Alec?" Magnus had entered the room.

"Mmm?" was the only reply Alec could manage. The Shadowhunter felt the cushion sink as Magnus sat down.

"Is there anything I can get you?"

"Not unless you have a rifle or something."

Magnus responded by shifting closer to Alec and lacing his fingers through his fiancee's hair. Alec once again opened his eyes and crawled closer to Magnus in order to rest his head on the warlock's lap. Magnus continued brushing his fingers through Alec's hair gently as he turned on the TV.

"Casablanca. A classic," Magnus said quietly.

"Never seen it," Alec replied.

"Prepare to be romantically awed." Magnus draped his free arm over Alec and held his hand.

"You mean more so than I am by you?" Alec smirked up at the warlock. Magnus leaned down and gently placed a kiss on Alec's lips.

"Quit being cute and watch the movie," Magnus said, pulling back. Alec smiled and turned his attention to the TV, drifting in and out of consciousness as Magnus held him.

Alec's world swam back into focus as he felt a cooling sensation drifting across his forehead. Blue sparks jumped in front of his eyes as Magnus's fingers drifted back and forth.

"What are you doing?" Alec asked.

"Healing you. There seems to be a bit of poison still left in your system. I must have underestimated...what kind of demon did you say did this to you?"

"It wasn't any one demon. It was..."

"Yeah I know, a room full of them." Magnus removed his hand from Alec's head. Alec looked up and saw the warlock's pupils contract to slits.

"Magnus? What's wrong?"

Magnus let out an angry sigh, "I'm just trying to figure out why you're lying to me." Magnus slid out from underneath Alec and rose to his full height. "I'll be out for a bit. You should probably contact your sister." Magnus strode out of the room and slammed the front door to the apartment, leaving a stunned Alec alone.

_I'm upright_

Isabelle smiled as she looked at the text from her brother. She and the others had gone back to the Institute after leaving Alec and Magnus's place earlier that morning. She glanced at the time on her phone. 1:30 flashed across the screen. _Took him long enough to get up_, she thought. Isabelle turned her attention to Simon and Clary as they sparred on the mats in the training room. Simon jabbed right and Clary caught his arm, turning as she did so, and flipped Simon over her shoulder. She went in for the pin, but Simon managed to wriggle out of her grasp. They both squared off to face each other again. Boring, she thought as she turned her attention to Jace. He was seated on a wooden crate containing throwing knives and obviously ogling Clary's backside as she landed a kick to Simon's stomach. Isabelle rolled her eyes as she threw a blunted dart at Jace's shoulder.

"Hey, Alec's up. He just texted me."

"Remind me to give him hell for skipping out on training to sleep half the day away," Jace drawled.

"Give him a break. He did get attacked by... whatever it was that attacked him."

"You know, that has been bugging me," Jace turned his attention fully to Isabelle as Simon finally tapped out from Clary's chokehold. "We still don't know what attacked him, only that iratzes didn't work. I've only seen that happen with Greater Demon poison."

"I know, but Alec said that it was just a bunch of demons. Maybe it was a combination of poison that did it."

Jace started playing with the dart Izzy had thrown earlier. "I know, but something doesn't feel right. That raid had all the makings of a trap, you know?"

"I do know," Izzy sighed, "I didn't like the feel of that place either, but whatever laid that so called trap failed right? I mean, we all got out ok."

"Did we?" Jace looked up from the dart in his hand as Clary and Simon walked over.

"What's up with you two?" Simon asked, looking from Jace to Izzy.

"We were just discussing last night's hunt. Did anything feel off to you?" Izzy asked.

"You mean other than the creepiness of being in a brothel?" Simon countered as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the bottom of his shirt. "Yeah I guess it was weird. It didn't occur to me until this morning, but there were exactly the right number of Eidolan demons for each of us that went there. Five of them, five of us. That's an odd coincidence."

"Yeah, that was odd. Jace, who called that in last night?" Clary asked as she redid her ponytail.

"No idea. The tip was anonymous."

Warning bells went off in the back of Izzy's mind. "Were there any demons in any of the rooms you guys got sucked into?"

"No, mine was clear until I went down that trapdoor. That flying demon got me on about the fifth stair," Clary replied.

"Mine was empty too, initially. The flying demon actually busted through my trapdoor and grabbed me," Simon said as he looked at Jace.

"Don't look at me, mine waited until I got to the bottom of the stairs."

"So did mine, but I saw it early enough to get my whip around its throat," Isabelle frowned at her phone.

"Who was the last to get sucked into a room?" Clary asked as she sat down on the floor.

"Alec was still in the hall as I got pulled in," came Jace's quiet reply. "Something wanted all of us out of the way so that something different could happen to Alec. I don't get why he hasn't said anything."

Isabelle started texting quickly. _Meet us at Taki's_. "It's not like him. Something is not right," she said, "Let's get cleaned up and figure this out."

Magnus did not really have a concrete plan when he had stormed out of the apartment in track pants and a sweatshirt, but since he was dressed for it he started to run. The weather was rather mild for February, just a dreary grey tinge to the sky. Snow that had blackened from the passing cars piled on the sides of the road as he jogged through Brooklyn. Angry thoughts chased each other through Magnus's head as he pounded the pavement, _Why would he lie about something like this? Why start lying about things the day after I proposed to him? This makes less than no sense..._ Magnus had made it a good two miles from the apartment when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He stopped and quickly looked at the text from Izzy.

_What's up?_ He replied.

_We need to talk about Alec. Something isn't right._

_Fine, when?_ Magnus texted back as he began jogging his way back toward the subway.

_Meet us in half an hour._

_I'll be there._

Simon found himself seated next to Izzy in the booth at Taki's. Their waitress had just been by with drinks when he spotted Magnus walking through the door. Simon waved him over toward them, noting that the warlock was wearing workout clothes.

"Hey Magnus, nice outfit," he said. Magnus smirked.

"Yours too," he replied as Simon looked down at his T-shirt with the words "I'm on a boat" printed next to a picture of glucose in its "boat" conformation. Magnus pulled up a chair at the end of their table as their waitress, a werewolf girl named Leila, proactively brought Magnus a coffee and took their orders.

"Thank you," he said as she walked away from the table. "So, what is this little meeting about?" The warlock smiled at Izzy.

"We think something feels off about this whole encounter from last night," Izzy began. Jace and Clary were holding hands on the opposite side of the table as the four of them filled Magnus in on their discussion from earlier.

"What are your thoughts Magnus?" Clary asked once they had finished recounting their demon encounters from last night.

"It does sound suspiciously like a trap, but I still don't see a motivation. None of this is exactly concrete evidence one way or the other." His cat-like eyes swept the table. Their food had arrived and everyone was picking at it, their thoughts elsewhere.

"Has Alec said anything to you?" Simon asked. The look in Magnus's eyes made him instantly regret the question.

"No, he told me the same story he told all of you. It's a lie, but I see no reason for him to be lying."

"Why are you sure its a lie?" Simon almost slapped himself for not being able to keep his mouth shut.

Magnus's eyes focused solely on Simon's and he gulped at the slitted pupils staring back at him.

"Because I know Greater Demon poison when I see it."

"Oh," was Simon's only reply. "Well, I'm sure Alec will come around. He never usually lies about anything. Maybe something's messing with his mind. It wouldn't be the first time."

Jace snorted. "Don't remind me." Clary started rubbing circles on Jace's back. "Simon is right, though."

"I am?" Simon genuinely never thought he'd see the day Jace agreed with him.

"We should just wait for Alec to come around. The fastest way to ensure that he never speaks to us about it is to push him. Remember when I tried to confront him about dating you?" Jace said as he looked at Magnus. Simon frowned. There were still some memories he didn't have back from his time in Edom.

"Remind me," Simon whispered in Isabelle's ear.

"Oh, he just started vehemently denying that he was dating Magnus. Then Clary put a new Fearless rune on him and he almost came out to our parents on the spot."

"Ah, I kind of remember that. Did he pass out?"

Izzy giggled, earning her the attention of everyone at the table. "Sorry, I'm just reminding Simon of that time you knocked Alec out before he could out himself. It's funny looking back on it."

Simon was relieved to see Magnus chuckle slightly at that. "Ok, fine. I will wait for him to come to me. If he says anything to any of you, please tell me."

"Wait. Before you go, I am formally inviting all of you guys to Luke's house Friday. My mom is throwing him a birthday party," Clary piped up.

"Oh cool, who all is invited?" Izzy asked.

"You know, you guys, Maryse, Luke's old pack, the usual. It's nothing formal or anything. We're just having cake and presents. Izzy, you can invite your dad if you want."

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Please, like he'd come back to New York for Luke's birthday. He's still in Idris avoiding us."

"Well, whatever. It's not a big deal. The party starts at six. Would you tell Alec for me?" Clary asked Magnus.

"Sure," Magnus stood up, his chair scraping against the floor. He pulled some money out and tossed it on the table. "There, that should cover everything but the tip." He said with a wink as he walked away from the table and out into the cool February air.

At some point, Alec managed to get off the couch and attend to the neglected dishes. He had just finished scrubbing the last pan when he heard a disgusting hacking sound. He turned around to see that Chairman Meow had thrown up on the small rug outside the kitchen. Alec sighed as he dried off his hands and went in search of Magnus's spray bottle filled with a stain removing potion. He did his best to soak up the cat vomit with paper towels before spraying the stain on the carpet with the solution designed to removed any stain in an hour. Alec washed his hands and made a mental note to jump over the wet spot as he exited the kitchen. Alec grabbed a broom and began cleaning the rest of the apartment as he waited anxiously for Magnus to get home.

After going to Taki's, Magnus decided to continue jogging slowly back to Brooklyn. It was 5:30 when he opened the door to his apartment. The smell of rosemary hit his nostrils as he entered the surprisingly clean apartment. The windows had been cleaned and everything had been dusted to a shine. Chairman Meow greeted him at the door and rubbed up against the warlock's legs. "OK, where did you puke this time?" Magnus asked as he searched for the source of the rosemary smell. The cat just chirped in reply as Magnus removed his wallet and cell phone from his pockets and walked to the bathroom. Magnus noted that the tub had clearly been scrubbed as he turned on the shower and undressed. _He must be pretty upset with me_, Magnus thought as he washed his hair. Jace cleaned things impulsively all the time, but Alec only straightened up when something was bothering him. After rinsing the sandalwood soap off his body, Magnus turned off the shower and stepped out onto a different bathmat. _Alec must be really upset if he washed all the towels and rugs_. Magnus snapped on jeans and a v-neck T-shirt and padded softly to the bedroom.

Alec was asleep on top of the covers with the lights on in the room. Magnus felt his anger melt away as he looked at the exhausted Shadowhunter. Alec stirred in his sleep, his brow furrowing in concentration as he dreamed. Magnus made his way over to the bed and sat down next to Alec.

"Sweetie, wake up. It's six." Alec's eyes opened slowly as he rolled over to look at Magnus, blinking at the light.

"Sorry, must have fallen asleep."

"I can see that," Magnus smiled.

"I'm so sorry Magnus."

"It's ok, just tell me when you're ready. Have you eaten anything since breakfast?" Alec shook his head and sat up slowly.

"Well I'm starving, so I think we'll just order a pizza or something. Sound good?"

Alec nodded. "You're not mad at me any more?"

"How could I stay mad at you when you're out of commission. Honestly. It's all good." Magnus lightly kissed Alec on the forehead and went to order food.

Alec watched as he closed the door and shuddered slightly.

Five days had passed since they had gone on their last hunt at the brothel. It was 6:30 on a Thursday night and Alec could not for the life of him understand why anyone would unleash a pack of spider demons on a bowling alley, but that was exactly what they were facing now. Isabelle's whip lashed out at a demon crawling down lane three, effectively severing its four left legs. Jace and Clary were back to back, Seraph blades flashing against two more spider demons' fangs. Simon had managed to tackle one of the smaller spiders and grappled with it until he freed his Seraph blade and drove it into the demon's skull.

Alec stood atop the ball return in lane six and was firing arrows in rapid succession. He was downing his fifth demon when all the hair stood up on the back of his neck. He turned around to see the largest of the spider demons knock over a ball rack with its seven foot long legs as it raced toward him. Alec froze for a moment before he let fly an arrow directly into one of the spider's green glowing eyes. Poison spewed at Alec as the spider shuddered to the ground, its legs curling in as it left this dimension. Alec's knees hit the ground as the poison sizzled through his gear. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind as he continued to shoot demons down from his knees.

After thirty minutes of fighting, the spider infestation appeared to be cleared out. They had actually managed not to destroy the whole bowling alley during the fight, only breaking two ball returns and a pin setter. Alec made his way to the group gingerly.

"Can we please leave now?" He asked impatiently.

Jace looked at his _parabatai_ warily. Red blistered skin stood out against Alec's chest where the spider's poison had burned through his gear and dark circles ringed his eyes. Jace didn't say anything as he marked an _iratze_ on Alec's shoulder.

"Yeah, let's hop in the car. I hope it didn't get ticketed while we were in here..." Clary said as she dug the keys out of her pocket. The rest of the group followed the red head out, but Jace grabbed Alec's arm forcing the pair to hang back.

"Are you ok? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine Jace. It's just a little burn. It's healing already." Alec scowled at his shoes.

"Yeah, but that was a sloppy mistake. You never make sloppy mistakes. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. It's none of your business," Alec spat back as he ran out to the car, leaving Jace shaking his head.

The truth was, Jace was right to be worried. Alec hadn't had a proper night's sleep in five days. Images from the night at the brothel kept assaulting him, both when he was awake and when he was sleeping. He was irritated and not thinking clearly as the lack of sleep started taking its toll. He silently opened the front door to the apartment and made his way to the shower.

"How'd it go?" Magnus asked from the couch, a bowl of popcorn in his lap.

Alec sighed, "It went fine. Of course it was spider demons."

"Well that sucks. Any injuries?"

"Just this one," Alec opened his jacket to reveal the healing burn on his chest. "It's almost gone though. I'm just gonna hop in the shower and call it a night."

Magnus watched his fiancee as he traipsed down the hall, immediately texting Izzy for details about the night.

Magnus was already in bed when Alec walked into the room drying his hair with a towel. Magnus's eyes went to the former wound on Alec's chest where now there was only a slightly pink patch of skin.

"Tired?" Magnus asked, his eyebrow quirking up.

"Exhausted," Alec said as he pulled on his shorts and a T-shirt and crawled into bed.

"Damn, so I can't seduce you tonight?"

Alec laughed at that. "No, I'd be pretty much useless to you. Sorry we haven't been intimate in a while."

"Alexander," Magnus purred as he grabbed both of Alec's wrists and pinned them down to the bed while rolling on top of the Shadowhunter.

"Not tonight Magnus," Alec's tone was final. With a groan the warlock rolled off Alec and put a hand over his eyes.

Alec hadn't been in the mood since the night Magnus proposed and the warlock was starting to get frustrated. "It's fine darling. I'll just wither away over here with ever bluing balls. No big deal." He turned to smirk at the Shadowhunter and realized he was fast asleep.

Magnus awoke with a start, the darkness of the room pressing on his eyes and causing him to take a moment to figure out what woke him. A sound to his right caused him to snap his head in that direction. Alec made a strange gurgling sound as he moaned through clenched teeth. His eyes fluttered behind closed lids, his face scrunched in a look of pain. Magnus looked down at Alec's hands which were bunched in the comforter to the point that his knuckles whitened. Alec jerked to the side with a shout and a sharp scent assaulted Magnus's nostrils.

Magnus quickly hopped off his side of the bed and ran to Alec's side. Alec began murmuring something frantically as Magnus leaned in.

"Stop, please stop. No..." Magnus had heard enough.

"Alec! Alec honey, wake up!" Magnus shook his shoulders. "Alec, snap out of it! Alexander!" Alec's eyes snapped open, his breathing ragged and shallow.

"Alec, are you ok?" Alec looked wildly around the room for a moment until he felt Magnus's hand slowly stroking his hair. "Alec baby, look at me."

Alec's wide blue eyes finally landed on concerned yellow-green eyes as he took a steadying breath.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Magnus just nodded and kept looking at Alec with concern. Alec finally took stock of the situation and realized what was wrong.

He had wet the bed. "Oh my Angel, Magnus I am so sorry," Alec could feel the heat creep up his face as the humiliation set in.

"Shh, it's fine. Get up and leave your clothes on the bed." Alec did as he was told, extricating himself from the soiled bedclothes and peeling off his pajamas, never once making eye contact with Magnus. He left his clothing in the center of the bed and made a hasty retreat to the bathroom.

Magnus sighed and snapped the sheets and blankets into the washing machine. The warlock left the room and returned with the bottle of potion and set to spraying down the mattress. He placed the bottle on the nightstand and ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to calm down. Scattered thoughts whirled through his mind as he looked at the clock.

_4:15 am. What the hell just happened?_

Magnus took a deep breath and went to find his fiancee. "Alec?" He asked as he knocked on the door. He could hear the shower running and waited only a moment before slowly opening the door. Alec was sitting on the floor of the bathtub, head down. Magnus's eyes roved over the bright red skin of the young Shadowhunter as the scalding water continued to fall. Magnus removed his clothing quietly as he made his way toward the shower. The steam in the room was so thick Magnus was fairly certain Alec did not notice him. The warlock slid back the glass doors to the shower and turned the temperature down to somewhere sub-boiling. He stepped into the shower in front of Alec and knelt down. Magnus noticed the small red dots of blood where Alec had apparently tried to scrub his skin off his body and gently reached out to touch his cheek.

"Alec?" The Shadowhunter reacted by turning his head away from Magnus. "Alec, it's alright. It's not a big deal...that can happen to anyone. This one time, in Peru, I was really drunk..."

"Magnus, stop." Magnus snapped his mouth shut as Alec finally looked up. The Shadowhunter's eyes were red and puffy from tears.

"Tell me what to do to make this better. Please Alec."

"Ask me again what happened at the brothel." Alec's mouth was set in a stubborn line.

"Fine, what happened at the brothel?"

"It wasn't any one demon, there were several...try asking it a different way."

"Ok..." Magnus was trying to understand the strange turn the conversation had taken. "Um...what kind of demons were there on Saturday?"

"It wasn't any one...dammit. Try asking something else."

"Did someone stop you from being able to tell me what happened?"

Alec didn't answer, he just gave Magnus a half-hearted smile.

"Jace was right. I'll be damned." Magnus saw Alec wipe angrily at his eyes once again and decided they had had enough. He turned off the water and grabbed Alec's hands to stand him up. Magnus grabbed two towels and wrapped one around his fiancee's shoulders. Alec stepped out of the shower and slowly dried off. Magnus snapped his fingers and the pair was suddenly clothed in clean pajamas, Magnus wearing an emerald green silk ensemble and Alec wearing flannel pants and a dark grey hooded sweatshirt. The warlock wrapped an arm around Alec's shoulders and they walked to the living room. Magnus snapped his fingers once again and made several blankets and pillows appear on the love seat. Magnus sat down on one of the sections and pulled the lever on the side to recline and stretch his legs. Alec remained standing and fiddled with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

"Everything ok?" Magnus asked.

Alec shook his head slightly. "I don't know if I can trust myself. I...don't want _that_ to happen again." Alec looked down at his bare feet as another blush crept up his cheeks.

Magnus reached under the end table next to his side of the recliner and pulled out a slim bottle with a light red potion inside. "Here, take a sip of this. It's for dreamless sleep. You can thank Harry Potter and the Book of the White for this one."

Alec hesitantly took the bottle and uncorked it, taking a small sip. "Who's Harry Potter?"

Magnus chuckled and pulled Alec down to the couch by his hand. Alec curled up next to Magnus and rested his head against the warlock's shoulder. Magnus draped a blanket over the two of them and wrapped an arm around Alec. Magnus flicked his fingers and turned the TV to a channel showing old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

The couple stayed like that for a few minutes before Alec spoke up. "I think we should go to Clary's early."

Magnus was not entirely following this train of thought as he watched Elmer Fudd run across the screen. "Why, pray tell?"

"I think I could do with a little rune magic."

"Gotcha," was Magnus's only reply as the warlock lost himself in thought about the endless list of possible reasons for Alec's predicament until he could no longer keep his eyes open.

Izzy was feeling great this morning. She was looking forward to the party later in the day after having spent a whole night with Simon. She hummed merrily, if not very musically, as she made her way to her brother's Brooklyn apartment with a carrier of coffee. Someone was conveniently leaving to take their dog for a walk and held the door open for her. The Shadowhunter carefully made her way up the stairs so as not to upset the coffee. She made it to the landing in front of the apartment door and tried the handle, surprisingly finding that it was unlocked. She quietly made her way inside and tiptoed over to the living room. She stopped when she saw her brother and Magnus sleeping curled around each other on the love seat with the TV still on in the background. She set the coffee down and reached for her phone to take a picture. _Cute blackmail photo_, she thought as Magnus stirred at the sound her phone camera made. He blearily opened his eyes and waved at Izzy.

"Good morning. What brings you here so early?" Magnus's voice was still sleepy as he disentangled himself from Alec.

"I was in the neighborhood and brought you Starbucks," she beamed.

"Well thank you love," Magnus said as he accepted the cup from Isabelle. Alec jerked awake and nearly toppled off the couch when he saw his sister standing in the living room.

"When did you get here?" He asked, his eyes wide.

"A couple minutes ago, coffee?" She held out the remaining cup, which Alec accepted with a grumbled "Thank you."

"So, why are you guys sleeping on the couch?" Isabelle inquired as she sat herself down on the full-sized couch.

Alec and Magnus looked at each other briefly before Magnus answered, "We fell asleep watching TV." The warlock flicked his fingers and turned off the TV with a puff of blue sparks.

"Ah, I hate it when that happens. I always end up dreaming about whatever is on in the background. I had a really weird one that involved a Slap-Chop." Magnus laughed at that.

"I bet that was weird. Have any dreams about Tony Little and the Gazelle?" Isabelle visibly shuddered.

"Once. It wasn't pretty."

"Hey, Isabelle? Do you think Clary would mind if we stopped by her house this morning?"

Izzy smiled at her brother, "I think she'd like that. Jace is already over there helping her and Jocelyn get ready for the party. Let me just text Simon and we can get going."

Alec smiled slightly and made his way to the bedroom to change.

"I guess that's my cue to go get ready myself," Magnus said as he set his coffee down.

"Hey, not that I'm not grateful, but since when is Alec best buds with Clary?" Isabelle raised her eyebrows at the warlock as she asked the question.

"Since he is finally going to tell us what happened that night."

The trio arrived at Luke and Jocelyn's house an hour later to find Clary, Simon and Jace hanging artfully crafted wolf-motif decorations on the walls.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Clary shouted as she tacked up a giant silvery full moon.

"We, uh that is, I needed to...ask you something," Alec stammered as a blush dusted itself across his cheeks. Simon and Jace looked at each other and stepped down off their ladders to join the group in the kitchen.

"What is it Alec?" Clary's eyebrows furrowed together as she hopped down off the counter and carefully took in Alec's appearance. She didn't see any unaccounted for injuries, but did notice the dark circles under his eyes and the fact that his clothing hung even looser on his frame than normal.

"You remember last week when you said that I could ask you for rune mojo?" Clary nodded as Alec started nervously worrying the sleeve of his long-sleeved shirt. "I need it now. You know when Jace got...corrupted...by Lilith?" Clary nodded and made eye contact with Jace who wore an unmistakably concerned look on his face before turning her attention back to Alec. "Did you ever give any thought to what you could do differently to fix the situation if it ever happened again?" Clary felt her eyebrows raise almost to the point of disappearing in her hairline.

"Alec, what is going on?"

Alec just hugged himself and looked down at the ground. "Have you given it any more thought?" He repeated his question. Clary frowned and took a step towards the Shadowhunter who appeared to be leaning away from Magnus who was trying to reach out to comfort him.

"I have. I'm not really sure what I could do to change it. No runes have really come to me about it."

"What about a rune to erase other runes?" Alec looked up and locked eyes with Clary, his face pleading. Unbidden, an image of a rune started to surface in her mind's eye. The mark had multiple triangular shapes enclosed in a rectangle and spoke of removal to her. Clary focused her attention back on everyone in the room and saw them all staring at her in anticipation.

"I think I have it, but why would you want to be stripped of marks?" Alec just shook his head once.

"Can we go somewhere Luke and Jocelyn won't walk in on us?" Alec's eyes darted about the room. Clary helplessly looked at a very pale Isabelle and a wide-eyed Magnus.

"Sure, let's go to my room." Clary was followed by Jace, Simon, Magnus, Izzy and Alec as she gestured them into her room, which was covered in drawings and paintings of the group's adventures in the Shadow World. Pictures of Idris and Edom were interspersed with drawings of many of the people and creatures Clary had come into contact with over the past two years. Alec sank down onto Clary's bed as Magnus leaned against a wall and Simon and Izzy sat on the floor together. Jace sat down at Clary's desk and Clary sat next to Alec on the bed. "Alec, can you tell me exactly what is going on here?

"There wasn't...any...one...demon..." Alec looked pleadingly at Magnus.

"He can't tell you. He gets stuck saying that one sentence."

Clary exhaled audibly. "Ok, can you tell me where these marks are?"

"There wasn't...dammit!" Alec just shook his head. Clary looked helplessly at Magnus.

"Have you seen anything out of the ordinary on him?" Magnus shook his head at Clary.

"No, I haven't seen anything weird. It must be somewhere hidden..."

Jace snorted. "Well _that_ narrows it down. Where _haven't_ you seen Alec's bare skin?" Clary just rolled her eyes as Jace tried to make light of a situation he was clearly uncomfortable with. Magnus faced Alec squarely and Alec met Magnus's eyes for the first time since they stepped in the house. Magnus searched Alec's face for any hint, any clue that he might give the warlock. Alec turned his head slightly and brushed his fingers through the back of his hair.

"The back of his neck. Look there." Alec's lips quirked up in a small smile. Clary sat behind Alec, Magnus joining her on the bed. Clary gently lifted Alec's hair off his neck and stared. There were three marks; one was fresh looking and two were faded out. The three other people in the room leaned in over Clary and Magnus's shoulders to see what they were looking at.

"What do they say?" Simon finally chirped up.

Clary concentrated on each rune in turn, letting the meaning wash over her. "This faded one on the left says 'stillness' and the one in the middle says 'silence'. The faded one on the right says...'accommodate' ? Yeah, I think that's what it says."

"Can you take them off my brother?" Isabelle asked, tension visible on her face.

Without another word, Clary wrote the rune to erase on her left hand. The gentle burn of the stele coursed through her as she finished marking herself. She felt an odd sensation as the other marks on her skin near the new rune seemed to itch slightly. She held her left hand out to the back of Alec's neck and began moving her hand back and forth as though she was erasing a chalkboard. Clary watched as Alec gripped the comforter on her bed tightly and felt his body tense up. He gritted his teeth as the burning sensation between her hand and Alec's skin increased.

Four strokes later the burning ceased. Clary took her hand away and looked at her handy work. There was nothing she could do about the faded marks, but the formerly visible "silence" rune was completely gone. Alec reached a hand up to the back of his neck and sighed loudly.

"Ask me again what happened."

Magnus got off the bed and knelt in front of Alec, placing a hand on his knee. "Alec, who did this to you?"

Alec raised his eyes to meet Magnus's cat-like stare and said one word -

"Asmodeus."

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**Please review :) They make me happy. **


	4. Psychotherapy

**A/N: Hi guys, sorry it has been so long. Life has been crazy, but that's not the main reason this took so long. I really didn't want to write this chapter. It's completely necessary, but I really really did not want to do it. I just feel so _mean._ At any rate here is the long-overdue chapter 4. **

**I own nothing.**

**Please read and review!**

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4\. Psychotherapy

Alec's blue eyes swept the room and met identical expressions of shock from his friends. Isabelle's hand was over her mouth and Magnus gripped Alec's hands tightly.

"Come again?" Jace said as he scrutinized Alec sitting on the bed.

"It was Asmodeus. He...was the one in the brothel with me. He was waiting for me." Alec looked away from everyone in the room.

"So it _was_ a trap," Simon said as the shock wore off slightly. Alec nodded and met his eyes.

"He told me as much."

"Alec, sweetie," Magnus said as he started rubbing circles on the back of Alec's hand, "what happened?"

Alec took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

One week ago...

"I was wondering how long you would be." Alec jumped and spun toward the now locked door as the voice echoed through the room. A pair of cat-like yellow-green eyes materialized in midair, staring at the Shadowhunter as the rest of the demon formed solidly.

Before Alec stood Asmodeus, looking much the same as he had in Edom. The crown of barbs still shone around his head and he wore a tailored suit. This time, the suit was jet black with spiders as the cufflinks and buttons. Alec's hand twitched on the bow. "Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you. That would just make me angry, and you don't want to see me get angry." The Prince of Hell smirked as he took slow, measured steps toward the Shadowhunter. "Why don't you put the weapon down before somebody gets hurt?"

Alec's instinct was to let the arrow fly, but he knew that a mere electrum-tipped arrow would only slow Asmodeus down. Nothing short of an Angel Blade could send the demon back to Edom. Slowly, as though it caused him pain, Alec lowered his arrow.

"That's a good boy. Now put it on the floor." Alec dropped the bow and arrow at his feet. "And the rest of your weapons."

Furious clanging could be heard as Alec pulled out two full-sized Seraph blades, his quiver of arrows, two batons and five small daggers and let them fall to the ground.

"Excellent," Asmodeus said as he clapped his hands together, "Now that that's all settled, I hear congratulations are in order."

Alec blinked slowly, confused. Of all the things Asmodeus may have said to the boy, congratulations was not one he expected.

"Excuse me?"

"I said congratulations." A slow smile appeared on the demon's face. "I hear you are engaged to be married to my son, are you not?"

Alec simply nodded.

"Good. Now why don't you give your future father-in-law a hug?" Asmodeus held his arms out to the Shadowhunter.

Alec's eyes widened in disbelief. "Um, no. I don't think so. Sorry."

"What, you don't believe that love can conquer all?" The demon's face fell slightly as he lowered his arms.

"I just don't hug demons. Not really my thing."

Asmodeus shook his head. "Pity. I was really looking forward to hearing you call me 'dad'."

"Uh huh," Alec raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest as the conversation continued to get weirder.

"You're not having second thoughts, are you? Because that would be a real shame." Asmodeus's smile turned predatory as he considered the boy in front of him. "I came all this way to give you an engagement present."

The warning bells went off in Alec's head. Presents from demons always came at too high a cost. There was always a trick. "No, that's ok. You don't have to get us anything. Honestly." Alec tried to sound nonchalant to avoid offending the demon in front of him. He wasn't sure he succeeded.

"Nonsense. I want you to have it. Trust me, this gift will enrich your life beyond anything you have ever experienced."

Asmodeus snapped his fingers. Thick, black coils of energy wrapped themselves around Alec's arms and legs. Asmodeus lunged toward Alec and landed two quick blows to his face. Alec felt the blood trickle down from the cut on his cheek as he struggled to free himself from the bindings. "Ah ah ah, little Shadowhunter. Now is not the time to fight me. You'll be wanting your gift." Asmodeus kneed Alec in the stomach and brought his elbow down on the back of the Shadowhunter's neck, driving him to his knees. Alec continued to pull at his arms and legs with every ounce of strength he had, trying to get away. The demon circled around Alec, coming up behind him and tackling him to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Alec saw the flash of a dagger as Asmodeus raised it over his head and plunged it into the back of the Shadowhunter's bound left hand. Alec bit back a scream as the cold demon metal pierced his flesh and seemed to draw all the warmth from his body. He barely had time to register what was happening before a second demon metal knife was thrust through his other hand, pinning it to the floorboards.

Alec suddenly felt multiple sharp pains in his shoulder as Asmodeus leaned in close to his ear and pierced his skin with his barbs.

"You know that voyance rune, the one that is supposed to protect you from demonic influences? Did you know that it cannot protect you once it perceives the influence is part of the self?" Alec's struggles continued as he watched twin puddles of his blood spread from his injured hands. "Brace yourself Shadowhunter. I am about to become part of your perceived self."

Alec dropped his head to the ground and closed his eyes, trying to block everything out. He tried to ignore Asmodeus pulling his pants down, tried to tune out the sound of Asmodeus undoing his own pants, and tried to drown out the sensation of the demon violating him.

Alec's mind was racing, looking for any distraction to get as far away from what was happening as possible. He thought of old song lyrics, long forgotten from childhood. He thought of all the places he had been, interesting people he'd met from around the world. He thought of his friends, his family, Magnus...how was he ever supposed to face Magnus again? Would he understand that he hadn't wanted this? That it was all...

"Nice trap I set, huh?" The demon behind Alec said. Alec's eyes snapped open as he felt his stele leave the pocket of his pants, now somewhere near his knees.

"What...what are you doing?"

"Giving you your present. Now shush. I need to concentrate." The tip of the stele glowed red in the demon's hands.

Alec felt the familiar stinging sensation of runes being applied to the nape of his neck.

"One to keep you from struggling." As Asmodeus finished the first rune, Alec felt his body from the neck down go limp. Once unable to even squirm away, Asmodeus resumed his previous ministrations with more force, causing Alec to bite his lip. He did not want to give Asmodeus the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

"Two..." the demon never even paused in his motion, "to keep you from speaking of this. Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for Magnus, would we?" Alec dropped his head back to the floor and tried to concentrate on breathing slowly to drown out the pain.

"And three..." Asmodeus finished with a final thrust and stopped moving, concentrating on the last mark on Alec's neck. "...is my gift to you." Alec felt the demon lean in close to his ear once again, the barbs pressing into his already bloody shoulder. "This last one ought to solve all the problems Shadowhunters and demons have from this sort of thing. I've been working on this solution for centuries."

Alec incoherently mumbled into the floorboards.

"What was that?"

Alec snapped his head toward Asmodeus and watched the demon's eyes go wide.

"I said _Uriel_."

Alec's gaze never left the demon as the small, glowing Angel blade protruded from Asmodeus's right temple, black ichor spilling from the wound as his eyes rolled back in his head and he disappeared.

Alec spat out the ichor that had gotten in his mouth as he delivered the killing blow with the blade clenched between his teeth.

The Shadowhunter tried not to think too much as he bit the handle of the demon metal blade sticking out of his hand and yanked back. Once free, he did the same to the other hand and watched as the semi-coagulated blood started flowing more freely. The ability to move his body came back quickly once Asmodeus left the dimension. Alec slowly forced himself to his knees and elbows, wincing as he did so. He paused for only a moment before standing slowly, trying to avoid the head rush from blood loss. He pulled up his pants and fastened them as best he could with his bloody and injured hands. Most of the movement left to his fingers was relegated to his thumbs and pinky fingers since the blades had pierced him in the center of his hands. He clumsily gathered his fallen weapons as fast as he could, paused, and picked up the discarded demon metal knives.

Alec limped as fast as he could out the door and to his companions.

"And that is what happened," Alec finished.

Jace had been carefully watching his _parabatai_ as he relayed the story of the events of that night and had noticed that Alec hadn't made eye contact once with anyone. He looked on as Alec started fiddling with the hole in the sleeve of his sweater in order to continue avoiding everyone. Jace looked at each of the other people in the room, trying to catch someone's eye and think of what to say. Isabelle had gone very pale, making her large black eyes stand out more than usual. Simon was frantically looking around the room and running his hands through his hair while Clary had tears silently streaming down her face that she hastily wiped away.

And then there was Magnus. The warlock appeared to be shaking violently with rage. The look on his face even managed to intimidate Jace; it looked like Magnus might burn down the house around their ears at any moment.

"Alec," it was Izzy who spoke first, "I don't even know what to _say_. That's so-"

"You don't have to say anything. I am, or I will be, ok," Alec said with a small smile, standing from the bed. "We've survived so much worse. It's going to be fine."

"Don't you _dare_." Magnus had curled his hands into fists and was glaring at Alec. "Don't you dare trivialize this."

Clary's mouth dropped open in shock. "Magnus! What is wrong with you?"

"Don't get involved. You have no idea what has been going on," Magnus paused and looked back at Alec. "You can't tell me, after everything this week, everything _last night_, that you are ok. You are not ok and this is a big deal."

Alec turned slightly red and looked down, "_Magnus_."

"No. Don't 'Magnus' me. You need to deal with this. We need to deal with this," Magnus strode over to Alec and cupped his cheek, "I don't ever want to see you like I did this morning ever again."

"Magnus, please stop," Alec implored.

"No. I won't. Not until you actually talk about this. You can't pretend everything is fine when we both know it's not," Magnus raised an eyebrow at Alec. "I already feel guilty enough without you internalizing everything and exploding at random intervals."

Alec's eyes widened, "Guilty?"

The warlock sighed, grabbed Alec's hands and looked into his eyes. "Yes. Guilty. None of this would have happened if not for me. My father-" Magnus's voice caught. "My father wanted to inflict pain on you to punish our happiness. He took something wonderful," Magnus ran his thumb over Alec's engagement ring, "and tried to corrupt it. It...it's all my fault this happened to you. The least I can do is try to help you." The warlock's eyes were shining with tears, a few escaping down his cheeks.

Alec reached out and brushed the tears off his fiancee's cheeks. "Hey, we'll get through this."

As he watched the strange turn of events, Jace's curiosity got the best of him. "Ok, so is anybody going to fill the rest of us in on what happened last night?"

"It was nothing, just a nightmare," Alec said looking at the others in the room.

"Just a nightmare?" Jace asked incredulously.

"I thought you guys said you fell asleep on the couch watching TV?" Izzy piped up with an almost identical look of confusion on her features.

"Fine. I had a nightmare so we went and slept on the couch. It's no big deal," Alec responded while crossing his arms and looking away.

"Uh huh. What kind of nightmare?" Jace asked his _parabatai_.

"The scary kind." Alec was clearly getting agitated now.

"Well _that_ wasn't avoiding the question at all," Simon said sarcastically.

"Don't get involved Simon," Alec retorted back.

"You know Jace, the house did kind of smell like Thanksgiving earlier," Izzy said conspiratorially. Clary's eyes widened.

"Ah, that explains it." Jace said with a smirk as Alec visibly paled. "You haven't had a problem with that sort of thing since you got your first Marks."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Alec said as he went back to avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Wait. I don't get it. Thanksgiving?" Simon whispered to Izzy.

"It's Magnus's infamous stain remover," Izzy replied helpfully.

"And the thing about first Marks?" Simon asked a little louder this time.

"Side effects of getting first Marks can include hallucinations, burning sensations and fear-induced bedwetting. At least I think that's the wording they use in the Codex," Clary chimed in.

By now Alec had gone from ghostly white to bright red in the cheeks.

"Ok fine. Yes, let's all have a good laugh. Alec can't control his bladder. Ha ha," Alec said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

"Alec, no one is laughing," Jace said soothingly as he slowly tried to approach his _parabatai_.

"Yes, well, I don't want your pity either," Alec's blue eyes bored into Jace's gold ones.

"I'm not trying to pity you. I'm just saying that there is no shame in having some _problems_ after what happened to you. We understand that there will be consequences," Jace said as he stood right in front of Alec.

"Do you now?" Alec said as he shoved past Jace to get to the door. "I'm going to go out for a bit. Don't wait up," he said as he slammed the bedroom door behind him, leaving a shocked and confused group of people behind him.

"What the hell just happened?" Clary asked as everyone tried to regain their composure after Alec stormed out.

"Alec just freaked out..."

"That's not what I mean Simon. I mean with _you_ Magnus. What the hell was that?"

"What the hell was what?" Magnus blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of any remaining tears.

"Didn't we just have this discussion last weekend about how Alec needs to come to us when he's ready? You pushed him too far too quickly and look what happened. Exactly what we thought would happen!" Clary threw her arms up in a gesture of exasperation.

"I'm going after him," Isabelle said as she snuck out the door.

Magnus stared Clary down. "So it's my fault that he got embarrassed when you all found out about last night?"

"Well sort of. You brought it up enough times that we got suspicious, but what I'm really talking about is the part where _he told us he was raped and you started yelling at him._"

Magnus jerked his head to the side as though Clary had struck him with her hand and not just her words. "I just couldn't let him play it off like nothing. It's not nothing and he's just going to bottle it up until some inopportune moment when he inevitably implodes!"

"I know. Let him. It's what Lightwood men do best," Clary said as she eyed Jace.

"Hey don't look at me. For once it's not me repressing my emotions," Jace said as he raised his hands in surrender.

"He needs time. Be grateful he confided in us at all. It's out there now and that is what is important. We at least have a chance to be there for him when the meltdown happens and in the meantime we can prepare ourselves. Get books or videos or whatever," Clary said quietly.

Magnus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You're right. I'm sorry I lost my temper. We'll figure this out."

Simon looked from Clary to Magnus several times before opening his mouth. "Now that that's settled, two things. One, what do we tell his mom and two, will he get Demon Pox?"

Magnus let out a dry chuckle, "He should be fine. At the very least, my father is not the type of demon you get Demon Pox from."

"What about his mom? Should we tell her or let Alec tell her?" Simon asked.

Clary looked at him levelly. "Did you listen to anything I just said?"

Jace snorted loudly at that.

Isabelle decided that while she was good at running in heels it would probably be easier to catch up to her brother if, for once, she was wearing gym shoes instead. Her breath formed transient white puffs as her heels struck the sidewalk running away from Luke and Jocelyn's house. Simon and Clary had taken the group on enough demon hunts in the neighborhood over the past year that Isabelle knew exactly where her brother was going to clear his head. She slowed to a walk and started trying to calm her breathing as she approached the small park several blocks away. She kept walking as she took in the sight of her brother, sitting on a swing, slowly pushing himself with one foot as he stared off into the distance. Isabelle approached cautiously, trying not to spook him. She quietly sat down on the swing next to him and looked over at her big brother. Isabelle had put on a coat before running out into the cold, but her brother apparently could not be bothered to dress appropriately for the weather.

"Aren't you freezing?" Izzy almost slapped herself for the inane opening line.

Alec shrugged. "Not really. I can't feel much right now."

Isabelle wasn't sure how much to make of that statement. Usually her brother never tried to hide meaning, but every once in a while he resorted to dramatic turns of phrase as he had the night they met Magnus.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Izzy asked as she bit her lip.

"Not really Iz. That's why I'm here and not at the house." Alec said without looking her way, still staring off.

Izzy reached out a hand and hesitated briefly before wrapping it around Alec's hand that was clutching the chain on the swing. "That's ok. I'm here whenever you're ready. Whenever that is." Isabelle looked off in the same direction that Alec's eyes were staring.

The siblings sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the winter sun rise higher in the sky as noon approached.

"Thanks Iz. It means a lot to me." Isabelle smiled at that.

"No problem. It's still you and me against the world. Siblings for life, right?" Isabelle looked back at her brother and felt her heart sink as she saw her brother's free hand angrily gripping his right knee. "Alec, what are you doing? You're going to leave bruises if you keep that up."

"I'm just so...so..." Alec gritted his teeth and tightened his fingers around his knee even harder, "I'm so..._uncomfortable_. I can't get free from my own thoughts. It's like there's no safe place left in my head for my mind to rest. Every train of thought just brings me back to how ashamed I feel. I can't get away. I just feel so _sick_, Izzy."

Isabelle hopped off her swing and pried her brother's hand away from his leg. "Stop beating yourself up. Literally. It won't help."

"It makes me feel a little better. It's a distraction. I feel like I _need_ to be punished. Like maybe if I feel that I paid some kind of penance this horrible guilt will start receding. I can't live like this!" Alec shouted. Isabelle kept ahold of his hands as she searched his slightly wild looking eyes.

"Why do you feel guilty?" Isabelle asked softly.

"What?"

"Why do you feel guilty? It wasn't your fault."

Alec clenched his jaw, the muscles on the sides of his face protruding slightly.

"It doesn't matter. I can rationalize it any way I want, but I still feel horrible. I know cerebrally that it wasn't my fault, but somehow that doesn't make it any better. You of all people should understand."

Izzy did understand. It was Max all over again. She remembered all too well that no matter what anyone told her, no matter what she told herself, that it hadn't changed that horrible obsession that had hijacked her every thought; that Max's death was all her fault and that she deserved every moment of misery for letting it happen.

Isabelle looked down at their hand; hers clad in the dark red gloves Simon had gotten her for Christmas and her brother's, uncovered and baring matching red scars.

"Then you should listen to me. I'm still here after all," Izzy looked back up at her brother's eyes. "It gets better. Time really does help. I know it's not the most original advice and it certainly won't make you feel better any time soon, but it's the truth. A day will come when it never even crosses your mind, what happened."

"You promise?"

Izzy felt her heart break a little as Alec looked at her, pleaded with her.

"I promise. Now let's get out of the cold, shall we?" Isabelle hooked her arm through Alec's and walked him back toward the house.

Alec and Izzy walked through the front door to Luke's house and felt the warm rush of air greet them. Alec felt his body begin to thaw and realized just how cold he had been sitting at that park. Izzy removed her coat and gloves and they walked into the kitchen to find Jocelyn, Luke and Maryse sitting at the kitchen table clutching coffees.

Maryse stood up and reached to hug Isabelle. "Hey sweetheart, we were just wondering where you guys were."

Izzy let go of her mom, who turned to Alec. "I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks. How have you been, Alec?" She hugged him as well. "You're freezing! Were you outside without a coat? What were you thinking?"

Alec sighed at his mother. "I'm fine mom. Really."

"Don't you give me that 'I'm fine' crap. Sit down, both of you. Tell me what's going on in your lives." Maryse gestured to the table and Alec and Izzy sat next to each other.

"Hey Alec, Izzy. Long time no see," Jocelyn said with a smile.

"Mrs. Garroway I just saw you last week at Simon's gig with Clary," Isabelle said.

Jocelyn shrugged, "A week is a long time compared to normal. We used to see all of you practically daily a year ago."

"How's the bookstore Luke?" Isabelle asked, watching her brother out of the corner of her eye scrape at the table top with a fingernail.

"It's good. Since Clary made me get that espresso machine business has really picked up. Maia is working for me part time now," Luke said with a smile.

"Great. I'm really glad to hear that," Izzy smiled that dazzling smile at Luke and Jocelyn.

"Alec? Anything you care to share with the class?" Maryse looked pointedly at her son, who stopped fidgeting with the table. Alec met Izzy's eyes and Izzy raised both of her eyebrows at her brother. Alec had no idea what she was trying to tell him.

"As a matter of fact mom, Alec does have some news."

"I do?" Alec felt his cheeks heat up and his stomach drop somewhere near the floor.

Isabelle cleared her throat and gestured to he left ring finger. Understanding dawned on Alec then.

"Right. I do have some news. Magnus and I are engaged," Alec placed his left hand on the table so the adults could see the ring.

Jocelyn clapped her hands together and smiled, "Congratulations!"

Luke reached over and clapped Alec on the shoulder. "How did you ever get Magnus to propose?" Alec laughed nervously at that. He then turned his eyes to his mother, who's look was decidedly not one of happiness. Her eyebrows were scrunched together and her mouth was turned down in a slight frown. Alec felt his breath catch in his throat.

"What is it, mom? Aren't you...happy for us?"

Maryse looked up at Alec's eyes and away from his ring. "Oh yeah honey, that's great. It's not that, it's just...what happened to your hands?"

"Um...uh..." Alec locked eyes with Isabelle once again, hoping she had a way out of this.

"Don't look at me, it's up to you whether or not you tell them."

Alec looked down at his scarred hands once again, curling his fingers into loose fists. He took a deep breath and looked at his mother, whose look had changed to one of concern.

"They were engagement presents...from Magnus's father." Jocelyn, Luke and Maryse had nearly identical looks of shock on their faces. Isabelle just reached out for one of Alec's hands once again. "He set a trap for us in the form of a demon infestation. We got a call and went and he was there. He separated me from everyone else and he...did stuff to me."

Luke spoke up, "What 'stuff'?"

Alec looked sadly at Luke, who had his arm around Jocelyn. "I don't want to ruin your birthday party. I should just leave." Alec stood from the table and turned away only to feel a hand on his arm stop him.

"Alexander Gideon Lightwood."

Alec cringed at his mother's use of his full name. Somehow it made him feel like a small child again.

"Look at me Alexander," Alec grudgingly turned to face his mother. "Baby, just tell me what is going on. I can't help you if you won't let me."

"Mom, you can't help me with this. Nobody can help me with this."

She reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of her son's eyes. "Please, Alec. Just tell me."

Alec paused, unsure of what to do. Now that he had the freedom to speak of the events of last Saturday he wasn't as desperate to share. He looked over at Izzy again as she gestured for him to go ahead with her hands. He turned and looked back at his mom, her face open and concerned as she looked at her oldest son.

"He...raped me. There was a lot more to it than that, but that's the gist of it. Ok?" Alec could see Jocelyn and Luke's shocked faces in his peripheral vision and carefully watched his mother for her reaction. He was surprised, therefore, when tears started welling up in her eyes.

"Oh Alec," was all she said before she pulled him in for another hug. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? I can get you all the help you need. Anything you want, a psychologist, hypnotism, a vacation from it all, whatever." Maryse pulled away and held on to both of Alec's wrists. Alec could feel the pressure building in his eyes as he fought back tears of his own.

"Thanks mom. I really appreciate it, but I think I just need to sort this out on my own."

Maryse nodded. "Don't hesitate to call or ask for anything, got it?"

Alec nodded, "Sorry," he said turning to Luke and Jocelyn. "I didn't mean to put a damper on your birthday party."

"Don't worry about it Alec. You are more than welcome to stay for the festivities. Maybe some cake will help. Or we have some decent brandy here if you think that will make you feel better faster," Luke said conspiratorially.

Alec chuckled. "Thanks but no thanks. I think I'm going to get Magnus and head out. I appreciate the offer though." Alec looked back at Izzy once and left the room in search of Magnus.

Magnus had managed to hang all of the remaining decorations with one flourish of his hands, so for the past half hour he, Simon, Clary and Jace had been sitting in the living room watching un-subbed anime.

"Here's what I don't get," the warlock started, "why are they always so dramatic about things? That character just got asked if he trusted his fellow soldiers and it took a full three-minute internal monologue and much shouting for him to just say 'yes'. I speak Japanese and lived there briefly. No one does that."

Simon shrugged. "It's just to build tension. Besides, I don't speak Japanese but I kinda got what was going on because it _was_ so dramatic." Clary just nodded from where she sat next to Jace, who had his arm around her.

"Hey, do you have a minute?" Magnus's head snapped up as Alec appeared in the doorway and addressed him.

"Sure, sure," the warlock hastily stood up and walked over to his fiancee. "What's up?"

"I told mom, Luke and Jocelyn what happened."

Magnus felt his eye widen. "And?"

"They took it well. My mom really wants to help out. Oh, also I told them about our engagement."

Magnus nodded. "Ok, and?"

"That went over better, but I'm really not in the mood for a party. I'm going home but you can stay if you want to," Alec said.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"I want you to do what you want," Alec replied.

"Well unfortunately for you I want to do whatever you want me to."

Alec looked away briefly and back up at Magnus's yellow-green eyes. "Take me home?"

"Of course darling." Magnus wrapped his arm around Alec's shoulders, grabbed their coats, and headed for home.

* * *

**A/N: What did you think? Reviews give me the strength to carry on. Please leave one to stroke my dying ego. **

**Love,**

**Spicule **


	5. Hyperemesis Gravidarum

**A/N: Hello readers! Sorry for the delay, but I will be quicker on the draw with the next chapter. Shit gets real here, so it was kinda hard to write. Enjoy and review!**

Disclaimer: If I owned this series I wouldn't have student debt.

* * *

**Hyperemesis Gravidarum**

Alec hastily unlocked the door to the apartment and hurried inside. The Shadowhunter shucked off his jacket and immediately headed for the kitchen. He began pulling items from the fridge: slices of cheddar cheese, fresh spinach and mushrooms. He pulled the olive oil down from one of the cabinets and added a tablespoon to the pan he had pulled from the dish rack. Once the oil warmed up he added the mushrooms and started sautéing them, adding a pinch of salt. He was vaguely aware of the door shutting as he reached for another pot and a can of tomato bisque soup. He popped open the lid and poured the contents of the can into the small saucepan and added the spinach to the mushrooms until it wilted. Alec turned off the burner and grabbed a paper towel and set it on a plate. He turned the pan over and dumped the mushrooms and spinach on the plate in order to allow them to drain slightly.

"Soup and grilled cheese, I take it?"

Alec jumped and spun around, spatula in hand, to face Magnus who was leaning against the doorway to the kitchen.

"Don't sneak up on me like that! I already almost stabbed you once this month. I'd rather not repeat that performance." Alec turned back to the stove and felt his stomach contract uneasily. "We should eat. We haven't had anything today except the coffee Izzy brought us."

"You're right, but I would rather talk about what happened earlier."

"Magnus, I don't want to talk. I'm all talked out for today."

"Then don't talk, just listen."

Alec sighed and turned around to face his fiancee, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm listening."

"Okay, first things first. I want to...apologize, again, for yelling at you. I should know better than to push you-"

Alec snorted quietly at that.

"-and so yeah, I just want to say sorry again. Um..."

Alec raised one eyebrow at Magnus's uncharacteristic loss for words.

"Right. So...Clary set me straight earlier and I just want you to know that we are all here for you, you know, whenever you want," Magnus looked hopefully at Alec who just shrugged his shoulders once.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but if you ever do you can come to any of us. On that note, um, I just wanted to tell you that I was kind of freaking out earlier because I just, I, I..." Magnus closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, "I feel like I put you in this situation and I can't handle it."

"Wait...what?" Alec was genuinely confused.

"Hearing you talk about what he did to you, seeing the aftermath last week, seeing you so upset last night...I can't handle any of it. I never want to see you hurt. It makes me crazy. Literally. I was holding onto my magic for dear life at Clary's. I was afraid blue lava was going to start spewing from my hands in there," Alec watched as Magnus laughed nervously and ran his hand through his hair.

"It's going to be ok Magnus. I will be fine in a few days, ok? This will all just be a thing of the past. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some lunch to make." Alec turned back to the stove and started buttering slices of bread and setting them on the pan, piling them with cheese and the sauteed veggies. Alec felt the warlock's presence behind him as two arms wrapped around his midsection.

"Have I ever told you how sexy you are when you cook?"

"Only every week."

Alec dubbed the soup and sandwiches sufficiently cooked and turned off the heat. Magnus snapped his fingers, producing two bowls and plates on the counter. "Thanks Mags. Lunch is served." The pair slowly wound their way to the living room and sat on the floor, placing the food on the coffee table and settling down. Magnus snapped his fingers and turned on the TV, deciding on a marathon of Sex and the City.

* * *

"I wonder what they're up to now," Izzy said as she lazily spun her ring on Luke's kitchen table.

Clary sighed as she sat across from Izzy and propped her feet up on Jace's lap. "I dunno. Hopefully they're humping each other's brains out by now."

"Ack! That's my brother you're talking about. I really really don't want to think about him and Magnus doing depraved things to each other." Izzy started tapping her skull in various places. "Which part of the brain do I have to damage in order to get that image out of my head?"

Simon caught Izzy's hand as he sat down in the seat next to her. "Trust me, losing your memory is a bad thing. Just roll with it and move on like the rest of us."

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Are you always going to find ways to use that against me? I think you need some new guilt-tripping material Simon." Simon laughed.

"Alright, I'll get on that. Just like how Magnus is probably getting on your brother."

"Simon!" Izzy yelled as she playfully slapped her boyfriend on the arm.

"Ow, woman! You need to learn the difference between jokingly hitting someone and attempting to break all their bones. I swear you'll be the death of me." Simon rubbed his arm where Izzy had slapped him gingerly.

"Alright enough you two. I've seen enough flirting for one day," Jace piped up as he started rubbing Clary's feet. Clary started giggling as Jace found ticklish points on her soles. "Hey Clary, when is everyone getting here?"

"Well Maia and Bat should be here in a few minutes. I don't really know who else is coming..."

"Oh, I invited Catarina too," Jocelyn piped up as she swooped into the room with a veggie platter in hand and placed it on the table. "You know, just because. Is there any chance Alec and Magnus will come back?"

The group exchanged looks across the table. "I don't think so Mrs. Garroway. I think they are going to sit this one out," Isabelle said.

"Too bad. Luke and I have an announcement to make once everyone gets here." All eyes landed on Clary, who shrugged her shoulders as her mother went back to the kitchen.

"Don't look at me, I have no idea what she's talking about," Clary folded her arms and looked after her mother, wondering what the hell was going on.

* * *

Magnus leaned back on the couch and watched Alec standing at the sink, washing dishes. Magnus had tried to stop the Shadowhunter, but Alec insisted. Now the warlock was left sprawled on his stomach on the couch trying to keep from falling asleep in case Alec decided he needed Magnus. He dropped his head into the pillow he was holding and sighed loudly. In light of recent events all wedding planning had been put on hold, and Magnus was beginning to wonder if there was ever going to _be_ a wedding. Magnus was just lamenting this fact when he heard footsteps approaching. The warlock lifted his head and saw Alec standing a few feet away from the couch, water spots from the sink dotting his sweater.

"Magnus?"

"Yes darling?"

Alec bit his lip slightly. "Will you come to bed with me?"

Magnus cracked a smile. "Of course. You read my mind. I'm so exhausted."

"That's not really what I meant."

Magnus raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Are you sure?"

Alec slowly sauntered toward the couch and knelt down beside Magnus, running his fingers through the warlock's hair and running kisses up his neck toward his ear.

"Of course."

Magnus pulled away from his fiancee slightly. "After everything that's happened, you are beyond certain you're ready?"

Alec closed his eyes for a moment, hiding an eye roll. He leaned back in toward Magnus and rolled him over onto his back. The Shadowhunter hopped on top of his fiancee and straddled him while leaning down to draw their faces closer together.

"I need this as much as you do. Please Magnus," Alec seductively rolled his hips on top of the warlock, "erase him for me. Don't let him be the last one to touch me."

Alec watched the comprehension dawn on Magnus's face as Magnus finally reached up to kiss him.

"Of course, anything you need darling."

Magnus fastened Alec's hands behind his neck and stood up, carrying the Shadowhunter to the bedroom. Magnus deposited Alec on the bed, scooped up Chairman Meow and plopped the cat just outside the door.

"Not this time my friend," he said as he shut the door on the feline. Magnus turned back to his fiancee who was sitting up, waiting for him. Magnus closed the distance between them and gently laid Alec down on his back as he kissed him sweetly.

Alec reached his hands around Magnus's neck and pulled his body closer, hungrily seeking contact.

"Please Magnus, make love to me?"

Magnus drew his hands up underneath his lover's shirt until Alec took the hint and sat up, allowing the warlock to fully remove the garment. They continued kissing each other as Alec laid back down and reached for the warlock's shirt. Magnus snapped his fingers and Alec's hands were now free to rove over his body without the interference of clothing. The desperation in their kisses increased as the amount of clothing decreased, resulting in Alec breaking away to breathe as he tossed his head back. Magnus took this as an invitation to trail kisses lower on his partner until he reached the barricade of his jeans.

"May I?" Magnus asked as he quirked up an eyebrow at Alec. The Shadowhunter nodded and lifted his hips slightly as Magnus undid the button and slid them off his body, taking his boxers off in the process.

"Hey, no fair," Alec protested with a smile.

"I never said I played fair darling." Magnus grinned. Alec, deciding he needed to even up the score, reached for Magnus's pants only to feel the fabric disappear under his fingertips as Magnus whisked his own clothing away with magic.

They continued peppering each other with kisses, touching one another, neither one in any kind of hurry.

Eventually it became too much, the overwhelming sensation of being intimate with his fiancee in too long.

"Magnus, are you ready?" Alec's blue eyes locked with the warlock's.

"Am I ready? Is that even a question?" Magnus reached over to the drawer and pulled out a small bottle. "Top or bottom today?"

"I said make love to me, Magnus." Magnus nodded once and prepared himself and Alec, sliding in slowly, teasingly, until the Shadowhunter pressed the warlock to his body.

"Well someone is impatient."

"Shut up Magnus."

Magnus only laughed in response and continued to tease the Shadowhunter, moving agonizingly slowly. Alec arched his back slightly, pressing into the pillows and closing his eyes. He sighed quietly, contented, as Magnus kissed his jaw. Alec trailed his nails lightly up the warlock's back, causing Magnus to bury his head in Alec's shoulder. Magnus rested his forearm under the Shadowhunter's head as he kissed his way up from Alec's collar bone back to his plump lips. Magnus's other hand brushed Alec's hair back from his face and caressed his cheek.

"I love you so much, Alexander."

"I love you too, Magnus."

And for a moment, all was right with their world.

* * *

"Come on Bat, we're already late as it is," Maia yelled back to her boyfriend who was taking his sweet time getting out of the car. She watched as he sighed and finally stepped out and jammed his hands in his pockets.

"I don't understand why we had to come to this. Everyone else is at that new club having fun without us."

"Oh come on, we made a commitment to Luke and Jocelyn way before Howl at the Moon opened. It's not their fault the vampires decided to schedule the grand opening for tonight."

Bat finally joined her on the front step as she rang the doorbell, watching over her shoulder for any uninvited guests with barbs in their mouths. Clary opened the door a moment later, Jace in tow.

"Hi guys, come on in! It's freezing out here."

Maia and Bat stepped into the familiar hallway and handed their coats to Jace, who carried them to the spare bedroom. Clary led the pair to the living room where the group was situated. Simon sat on an armchair with Izzy on his lap. Maryse and Catarina were side by side on the couch and Clary plopped down on the floor, gesturing for Maia and Bat to join her.

Maia half-dragged Bat down with her, ending up with him partially sprawled in her lap. Jace returned from depositing their coats and smoothly glided down to sit with them.

"Starting shenanigans without me? I'm offended," Jace addressed Maia and Bat as Bat tried to crawl off Maia's lap.

"Nah Blondie, we were just waiting for you to join us. It's not an orgy without Mr. Gift of the Angel himself," Maia countered, smirking.

"I am starting to regret the amount of time I spend with all of you. I think you're becoming immune to my jokes."

Clary just shook her head in mock-shame. "Hey Bat, how are you doing?"

Bat shrugged, "I'm good. The DJ thing is really picking up for me. I even landed a gig at that new club down the street from headquarters next weekend."

"Oh that's cool. That Howl at the Moon place, right?"

"That's the one. I really wanted to check it out tonight, but someone had to go and have a birthday party."

Maia shot him a death glare as Jace handed her a bowl of pretzels. Maia grudgingly accepted them and grabbed a handful to prevent her from smacking her boyfriend upside the head. Maia stuffed the pretzels in her mouth just as Izzy and Simon chose to join them.

"I see the party's over here. I'm a little insulted you guys chose the floor over us," Simon said as he took a seat.

"What did you expect us to do, join your little love fest on the chair? I like you and all, and we may have had a semi-homoerotic experience that one time, but I don't think I could go beyond kissing. Especially with my little sister. No offense," Jace finished with a smile.

Izzy rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Maia. "So, what's new with your wolf pack Maia?"

Maia started slightly choking on the pretzels as she tried to rapidly finish chewing them. Bat thumped her on the back a few times until she managed to draw breath as Clary handed over her glass of water.

"Thanks," Maia wheezed out. "Um, things are going well. We've started fixing up the place. Trying to make it more livable. You know, a woman's touch and all."

Bat snorted. "Seeing as I'm the one who's been doing all the decorating, did you just call me a woman?"

"What if I did? There are worse things you could be."

Clary and Izzy laughed at that as Jocelyn and Luke entered the room. Jocelyn held a birthday cake covered in lit candles and set it down on the coffee table. Everyone in the room crowded around the cake and sang "Happy Birthday". Luke leaned in and blew out the candles, leaving behind a small cloud of smoke. Once that cleared, Clary's eyes picked out the yellow swirls against the chocolate frosting. She frowned.

"Mom, did they give you the wrong cake? It doesn't even say Luke's name, it just says 'Happy Birthday 10/16/09. That's not Luke's...oh." Realization dawned on the group huddled in the room. "Mom, are you...?"

Jocelyn nodded. "We're expecting! Clary you're going to be a big sister!"

Clary's jaw dropped open as her eyes widened. A chorus of 'awes' and 'congratulations' could be heard from the others in the room. Simon even clapped Luke on the back once.

"It's so exciting, isn't it?" Luke said as he wrapped his arm around his wife and pulled her in for a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Clary?" Jace grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly, a look of concern on his face.

Clary shook her head quickly, jerking out of her thoughts.

"Oh my Angel, mom that's...wonderful." Clary approached her mother with open arms and hugged her, praying that this time things would be different.

* * *

_Five weeks later..._

Magnus woke to the sound of Alec's alarm going off at 5:00 am. He looked over at the Shadowhunter next to him, his hand groping blindly for the offending object. Alec switched off the alarm and collapsed back against his pillow, draping his arm over his eyes.

"I don't want to go Magnus," Alec grumbled.

"Then don't. Stay here with me."

Alec sighed. "I can't. Jace will kill me if I blow him off."

"Then rise and shine and let me get back to sleep." Magnus rolled over and pulled the blankets up over his head and waited to feel the bed shift. After several minutes of waiting, Magnus uncovered his face and looked over at the Shadowhunter next to him who had fallen back to sleep.

Magnus poked him a few times, eliciting a groan.

"Five more minutes," Alec groaned.

Magnus sighed. "What has gotten into you? You're usually so chipper in the morning I want to strangle you. Are you sick or something?" Magnus reached over and placed a hand to the Shadowhunter's forehead, searching for and not finding any evidence of fever.

Alec sighed. "Fine, fine. I'm up. I'll let you get back to your beauty sleep." The Shadowhunter blearily stumbled toward the bathroom, his eyes only half open as he got ready for training.

Magnus stared up at the ceiling, suddenly wide awake.

His eyes had not yet opened, but Jace was aware of the fact that someone was standing in his bedroom with a cup of coffee. He cracked open one eye as Clary sat down on the edge of his bed.

"Is that for me?" Jace asked, his voice gravelly.

"Yep. I figured it would help you jump start your day. We can't have you slacking off in your duty as slave driver- I mean drill sergeant on these Friday morning training sessions," she carefully handed her boyfriend the scalding-hot cup, cracking a grin.

"I am not a drill sergeant. I am only tough because someone has to keep us in fighting shape. Besides," he took a sip, placed the cup down on the night stand, and sat up slightly, "you of all people should know I am more of a lover than a fighter." Jace quickly grabbed Clary around the middle and pulled her down to the bed, pinning her to the mattress as she yelped.

"Jace!"

Jace started trailing kisses over her collar bone, her neck, her jaw, wanting all of her for himself in the moment.

"Jace! Come on, now is not the time." Clary pushed on his shoulders and Jace rolled off, buried his face in a pillow and growled in frustration.

"Clary, you haven't been in the mood for weeks. I know periods don't last 15 days. Come on, at least go down on me?" He looked up at his girlfriend with puppy dog eyes, hoping against hope that it would sway her.

Clary rolled her eyes. "You've been counting? Maybe after training and a shower, ok? It's time to get up. Alec will be here any minute."

Clary stood up and swiftly left the room without looking behind her.

Jace planted his face back in the pillow and yelled in frustration.

Alec was slightly amused at being the first to arrive in the training room following his late start this morning. He yanked off his track pants and jacket, revealing a pair of black compression shorts and a faded black tank top. Alec began warming up, jogging around the room and letting his mind wander.

His thoughts focused on his sleeping problems. Several weeks ago he was unable to sleep from the constant flow of nightmares. Now all he wanted to do was sleep. He had never been so tired in his life, choosing to take naps in the afternoon instead of reading. He never felt rested. Despite going to bed at 8:30 last night, he was still exhausted.

Magnus called it depression. Jace called it laziness. Whatever it was, it needed to stop. The constant fatigue was interfering with his life.

He stopped jogging and went over to the target practice area, bypassing the arrows.

Jace and Isabelle quietly entered the training room and walked over to where Alec was standing. Izzy noted that her brother was closely examining a throwing knife, the tip pressed into a fingertip as the other hand slowly spun the weapon.

"Alec?" She asked quietly.

Alec shook his head several times, looked up, and let the dagger fly into the bullseye.

"Hey, I didn't hear you come in," he replied.

"We're sneaky like that," Izzy said with a smirk as she picked up a wooden practice sword.

"So what is the itinerary for today's training, oh wonderful sensei," Alec said mockingly with a bow to Jace.

Jace just huffed and rolled his eyes. "For that smart-ass comment, you get to help me blow off some steam. Izzy's going to try to teach Clary and Simon how to use a whip today."

This time, Izzy and Alec rolled their eyes in unison as Izzy put the sword back and went to the wall where the whips hung in rows amidst other gleaming weapons. The female Shadowhunter picked up two whips and an arm-full of paper targets with small weights inside them as Clary dragged the half-asleep Simon through the door.

"Sorry I'm late Izzy. I had to wake up one third of the people in this room this morning." Clary took some of the targets from Izzy and helped her set up their practice area, far from where Jace and Alec were setting up to spar.

"It's all good Clary. Alec beat us here and he lives the farthest away, so either we can all feel guilty or just move on with our lives."

Clary nodded and picked up two whips, handing one to a yawning Simon. "You could be a life coach, you know that?"

"What's a life coach?" Izzy grabbed a handful of the paper targets and walked 15 feet away from Clary and Simon.

"You know, someone who helps other people get their shit together. You are sage-like enough to guide people and your no-nonsense attitude would go a long way. Pull!" Izzy leaned back and threw one of the targets as hard as she could into the air and Clary let the whip fly. The end clipped the target, emitting a small puff of smoke.

"Well I'm glad you think I could do well with a Mundane job. If you put just a bit more force through that whip you'll catch the target on fire. Come on Fairchild, I want to watch some stuff burn today."

Izzy got the next target ready.

Alec and Jace had just finished putting the mats on the floor as the first crack of a whip split the air.

"You ready?" Jace said, assuming a fighting stance.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," Alec shrugged as he matched Jace's posture.

Jace jabbed with his left hand and Alec dodged easily, countering with his own punch. Jace blocked him and turned Alec' s momentum against him as he threw another punch. Alec jumped back and kicked out with his right foot, which Jace once again blocked. The pair continued alternating blocking and attacking, falling into a familiar rhythm.

"So how are you this morning?" Jace asked, ducking out of Alec's way.

"Fine I guess. Tired as always," Alec responded as he swept Jace's feet out from under him. Jace easily rolled back up to his feet before Alec could pin him. "You?"

Jace scoffed, faked left and threw a right hook which Alec just managed to block. "Frustrated. Just really frustrated."

"Yeah I could tell," Alec replied as Jace aimed a kick at his head, driving Alec back a step. "What's wrong?"

"It's Clary," Jace said as he aimed a kick at Alec's ankles, forcing him to jump. "She has been giving me the cold shoulder since her mom told her she was pregnant. It's like-" Jace threw another punch, "she's afraid I'm going to-" another punch Alec barely caught, "knock her up-" he kicked out and followed up with another left-handed shot, "or something. She won't even-"

"Jace..."

_Punch_ "let me-" _punch punch_

"Jace..."

_Kick_ "touch her. I'm so-" _kick_

"Jace..."

_Punch, punch, kick_ "frustrated."

_"Jace..."_

But Jace paid no warning and caught Alec in the diaphragm with a particularly violent round-house kick.

"Oh Angel! Alec, are you ok?"

Alec dropped to his knees, unable to breathe. One arm wrapped protectively around his stomach as the other supported his weight. He heard approaching footsteps as he continued gasping for air.

"Jace, what the hell happened?" Izzy yelled as she knelt next to her brother.

"I- we were sparring and I got carried away," Jace said as he sank down to Alec's level. "Alec, I am so sorry."

Alec finally managed to get some air in his lungs and promptly began coughing violently. Isabelle patted her brother on the back until the coughing spasm quieted.

"Alec honey, are you ok?"

Alec nodded at his sister. "I'll be fine." He stood up shakily. "I think I'm going to call it quits for sparring though."

"Alec, again, I am so sorry," Jace said.

"It's ok. Just don't use me as your emotional and physical punching bag anymore, ok?" Alec walked off toward the target practice area, readying a bow.

"Ok, let's get back to it," Jace said as he clapped his hands.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Isabelle said, crossing her arms. "He's your _parabatai_ and he's been through a lot. Why do you always go too hard on everyone around you?"

Isabelle turned on her heel and rejoined Clary and Simon, leaving Jace to his own thoughts.

Four hours and one shower later, Alec walked into the apartment and collapsed on the couch. The fatigue was crushing him to the point where he was sure he would not have the energy to make it to the bedroom.

_'10:00 am. It's still early.'_ He thought as he curled up with a blanket and Chairman Meow behind his knees and fell back to sleep.

Two hours later Alec woke up noticing that the Chairman had left his side at some point. The Shadowhunter struggled to fully wake up for half an hour before finally prying himself off the couch. He walked to the kitchen in search of food, realizing that he hadn't eaten anything all day. He found a frozen pasta dish and popped it in the microwave, idly wondering what Magnus was up to for work. The microwave beeped loudly and he carefully removed the plastic dish using paper towels to reduce his risk of being burned.

He waited several minutes for his food to cool before digging in, suddenly very hungry. He finished eating and tossed out the plate, fully planning on spending some quality time watching TV and doing nothing when he was overcome with a wave of nausea. He waited for it to pass before making his way out of the kitchen, where he was hit by yet another wave of nausea.

_'Maybe Jace hit me harder than I thought._' He began walking to the bathroom, just in case. He knelt down in front of the toilet and lifted the lid and seat, waiting until a third round of nausea finally won out and he vomited violently.

_'Did I even chew any of those noodles? They look the same coming up as they did going down,'_ he mused. He managed to stop long enough to flush the contents down and sit back on his heels.

A few minutes passed before he was back at it for a round two.

Magnus walked through the door at 5:30, whistling as he did so. His last client of the day had been so happy with his demon summoning they had thrown in a hefty tip on top of his regular payment. He wanted to tell Alec about his wedding-related plans for the money right away. He was just taking off his shoes when he heard a horrible noise coming from the bathroom.

Magnus instantly recognized the sound of someone being sick and quietly approached the bathroom door, which was cracked open.

"Honey, are you ok?" Magnus asked as Alec wiped his mouth on a piece of toilet paper and flushed it, along with the yellow bile in the water.

"Just peachy," Alec scowled as he sat back on the tiled floor and put his head in his hands. "What time is it?"

"5:30. How long have you been in here?"

Alec groaned, "It's been 5 hours. I haven't been able to stop puking for longer than 30 minutes for 5 hours."

Magnus reached out and touched Alec's forehead, not finding a fever. "What happened?"

Alec paused. "I'm not sure. Jace kicked me in the stomach earlier, but that should have only caused me to be sick like once. This is obnoxious."

Magnus sent a pulse of magic through Alec's body, concentrating on his tumultuous digestive system.

Alec felt instantly better and took a deep breath. "Thank you. I could have really used that five hours ago." The Shadowhunter stood up and went to brush his teeth, relishing the minty taste of the toothpaste. Magnus remained leaning against the doorframe until Alec finished and walked him to the couch.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Um, maybe some ginger ale?"

Magnus snapped his fingers and produced a cold can of ginger ale for Alec. Alec thanked Magnus and popped the top open, taking a tentative sip.

"I think this might stay down. Finally," Alec leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes.

"Did you try an _iratze_?"

"Yeah I did. It didn't work. Usually they work for pathological things, but for some reason it didn't this time. I don't know. Maybe it doesn't work on Jace-induced stuff."

Magnus watched Alec thoughtfully as the Shadowhunter took yet another small sip of the ginger ale, taking in the dark circles under his fiancee's eyes.

"Let's watch some mindless TV, ok?"

"Sure Magnus. How was work by the way?"

"It was fine, darling. I'll tell you all about it later."

* * *

_Three days later..._

Magnus woke up, once again, at the God-awful hour of 5:00 am. He reached to turn off Alec's alarm and realized quickly that the Shadowhunter was not there. Magnus sat up, confused, looking around the room for any trace of Alexander.

He got up and made his way to the bathroom, once again, to discover Alec hovering over the toilet.

Alec had been throwing up on and off for the past 4 days, missing 2 training sessions and a family dinner in favor of sleeping in between rounds of vomiting.

Today Alec was standing, crouched over the toilet since the bruises on his knees had gotten too painful to continue kneeling.

"Baby, are you ok?"

Alec heaved again, brining up less than a teaspoon of yellow bile and coughing afterwards.

"What do you think?"

Magnus reached out a hand and tried to calm Alec's nausea with magic once again. Alec had grown resistant to Magnus's healing capabilities since the Shadowhunter had needed them so frequently.

Despite the diminished effect, Alec sighed and stood up. He flushed the toilet and went to brush his teeth, something that he was beginning to view as an exercise in futility. He knew he'd be right back here in around an hour.

Magnus snaked an arm around Alec's waist and helped the Shadowhunter back to bed, wincing slightly at how skinny Alec had gotten in a few short days. He deposited the weakened boy in the bed and pulled the covers tightly over him.

"Catarina will be here later this morning to sort this out. If she can't figure it out, we're contacting the Silent Brothers."

Alec just nodded as Magnus reached for his phone.

"Do you want to tell them you're not coming or do you want me to do it?"

"You do it. I'm starting to think that they don't believe me anymore." Alec sighed and curled up into a ball.

"No problem sweetie. You rest, I'll call Isabelle." Magnus made his way out of the room to call Izzy.

The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello?" A very bleary sounding Isabelle said, answering.

"Hi Izzy, it's Magnus. Alec is still sick."

"Are you serious? Should I get Mom?"

"I don't know Izzy. Catarina will be here in a few hours and Alec wants you all to stay away from him. He's worried he'll get all of you sick too."

Isabelle snorted. "Leave it to him to be dying of some horrible disease and be worried about everyone else."

Magnus needed to pause for a moment, gathering himself and stopping the tears that were threatening him.

"You have no idea Isabelle. It's been hell here. He can barely eat anything. I think he literally kept down half a Gatorade and 3 saltine crackers yesterday. He's _soooo_ skinny."

Now it was Isabelle's turn to pause.

"And nothing you've tried is working?"

"Izzy, I have thrown every food-poisoning, stomach flu, nausea quelling spell and potion I know at him. Nothing works. If I thought you guys could help, I'd let you. Has Clary come up with anything?"

"No. She's really frustrated with herself. She thinks she should be able to fix everything with her rune-magic. We keep telling her it's not her fault and that it's out of her control but that doesn't help."

"How about Jace? How's he feeling?"

"That's the weirdest thing. He feels fine. I don't know if he's just not as in-tune with Alec as Alec is with him, but I would expect him to feel something since Alec could feel all kinds of weird things when Jace was in trouble last year."

"I know. I'm at the end of my rope here too Izzy. I just..." He paused again, feeling a stray tear roll down his cheek. "I'm starting to get really worried."

"We're all worried here too. Seriously, he can't worry about us getting sick. He needs us. We are seeing him either later today or tomorrow, ok? No excuses."

"Noted. Thank you for understanding Izzy."

"Any time Magnus."

Magnus hung up the phone and took a few steadying breaths.

Alec was vaguely aware of Magnus talking to Izzy on the phone in the living room. He felt the scars on the back of his hand stretch as he clamped his fists around the covers, willing the nausea to go away. It resurged with a vengeance right after Magnus stepped out. He couldn't take this any more. When he wasn't puking he was sleeping, and when he was sleeping he still had nightmares. It had been over a month since 'the incident' and his mind still would not forgive him. He had no respite, no breaks and now he was more miserable than he had ever been. There was something so visceral about being constantly ill that it brought out all his darkest thoughts. Alec knew he was about to lose this constant battle, so he pulled the small garbage can closer to the bed and retched into it once again.

A thought crossed his mind in the middle of his continued upheaval, _'There is nothing on this Earth worth this misery. What am I still doing here?'_ Alec reached up for a small dagger on the end table.

Then the door opened.

Magnus stepped into the bedroom to find Alec half-off the bed, hanging over the garbage can. The Shadowhunter was reaching toward the night stand where several small daggers and his stele rested. Magnus sat down carefully on the bed and reached his hand over to Alec's forehead once again and dosed him with magic.

Alec retracted himself the rest of the way onto the bed and collapsed straight back.

"I don't think you can stop pouring magic into me Magnus. That last one lasted five minutes."

Magnus looked sadly at his miserable lover and decided he needed some physical contact. The warlock laid down next to Alec and held him, Alec turning on his side to face away from Magnus incase he needed to make a quick getaway. Magnus started stroking the Shadowhunter's slightly sweat-dampened hair as he held him.

"I talked to your sister. They're all worried about you."

Alec closed his eyes briefly and sighed. "I know. I just can't let anyone else catch this. I've never been this sick before and neither have they."

Magnus looked up at the ceiling, imploring the powers that be to give him the strength to deal with his Shadowhunter's stubbornness. "Alec, this is beyond me. They insist on seeing you, contagious or not, today or tomorrow ok?"

"Fine, but if one of them starts dying of this horrifying parasitizing illness they can't blame me. I tried to protect them."

"Hmm, a parasite. I wonder..." Magnus reached out toward Alec's stomach and began rubbing slow circles on his abdomen, searching with his magic for any disturbances.

Alec relaxed against Magnus and slowed his breathing when suddenly, Magnus leapt off the bed and landed in front of Alec.

"What? What is it? Magnus?!" Alec sat up as quickly as he could, Magnus's hand still pressed to his stomach. "Magnus, what's wrong?"

Magnus's eyes were wide, his pupils blown wide as he looked into Alec's tired blue eyes. "Honey, there's another heartbeat in here."

Alec froze for a moment. "Come again?"

"I can feel a small heartbeat with my magic that is separate from yours. Alec, honey, have you noticed anything else strange with your body?"

"You mean besides the constant vomiting and nausea? No, not really. I've been a little preoccupied with the four walls of the bathroom."

"No tenderness around your nipples or feeling like your joints are loose?"

"I don't know Magnus. Right now everything hurts."

"How is your sense of smell?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "It's just peachy. All the better to be disgusted while I'm spilling my guts."

"Alec if this was happening to Izzy, she was puking all the time and tired and moody, what would you assume was wrong with her?"

Alec furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I guess I would think she was pregnant and that I needed to murder Simon. Magnus you aren't suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?"

"Stick with me here. My father's new rune was supposedly designed to fix the problem that Shadowhunters and demons have, correct? That's what he said to you?"

Alec nodded.

"Well, what's the problem that Shadowhunters and demons have?"

Alec huffed a quick laugh at that. "How about a fundamental disagreement on whether or not they should be in this plane of existence?"

"True, but the other problem is that they can't procreate under normal circumstances. What if that was part of the rune's function? He was an angel once. Maybe you never forget the language of heaven, even after you fall."

Alec paused momentarily. "But Magnus, I'm a man. I can't get pregnant."

"I know you're a man Alec. I just also know what my father is capable of. I didn't put it together before because you couldn't tell me at the time, but my father is not poisonous. He is a lot of things, but he does not actually have any physical poison. You were so sick when your family brought you to me."

Again this gave Alec pause. "So then what was that stuff you pulled out of me?"

"I have no idea. All I know is that it was toxic to you and was clearly Greater Demon related. Please Alec," Magnus snapped his fingers and a small pink box appeared in his hands, "at least rule it out for me."

Alec took a deep breath and took the box from Magnus, stalking toward the bathroom. Magnus followed the Shadowhunter inside and shut the door. Alec pulled the directions out of the box.

"Remove cap from end of test, urinate on applicator, recap and wait 5 minutes. Two pink lines indicate pregnancy, one pink line is negative. Got it."

Alec pulled the test out of the packaging and unzipped his pants. "Magnus, I can't go if you're staring at me."

"Right, sorry," Magnus hastily turned around and faced the back wall. Alec steeled himself and tried to concentrate on what he was doing. He was fairly dehydrated still and was finding it difficult to get started. He finally managed to get something out, capped the end of the test and zipped up his pants.

"And now we wait," Alec said as he pulled out his phone and set a timer.

Alec and Magnus sat side by side on the edge of the bathtub.

"This has got to be the longest five minutes of my life, and that is saying something," Magnus mused.

Alec cracked a brief smile at that. Even the joke could not calm the shaking that had started to come over his hands. He felt Magnus wrap his warm, tan hands around his shaky pale ones and tried to let the comfort sink in.

"We'll get through this Alexander. No matter what the result." Alec nodded just as the timer went off. The pair stood and went to the sink where the innocent, plastic white stick lay face-down.

Alec reached out and flipped it over, two pink lines visible in the window.

Alec set the test down and felt the edges of the world begin closing in on him. "By the Angel, I'm pregnant," he said right before he fainted.

* * *

A/N: I'm really nervous about this chapter. Tell me how you guys feel, because I am having a minor panic attack over here.

Spicule


	6. Plagued

A/N: Hi all! Sorry it's been so long. I'm going to blame the holidays. This is a very dense chapter, but it sets the logic of the piece in motion. I will try to be faster on the next update.

Once again, sorry. Enjoy!

* * *

Plagued

Magnus barely managed to catch Alec in time before he struck the ground. He slowly lowered his fiancee the rest of the way to the floor and picked up his legs. Magnus reached over and pulled a magazine from the nearby magazine rack and began fanning Alec as he slowly moved his legs back and forth through the air.

"Come on baby, come back to me. You need to wake up Alec," Magnus saw Alec's eyelids flutter once before they opened completely.

"How did I get down here?"

"You fainted," Magnus said, lowering Alec's legs.

"Oh, sorry. I haven't eaten anything today."

"It's ok sweetie. Why don't we talk this over with some toast or something?"

Alec nodded and slowly sat up. He rested for a moment, his head bowed, as he tried to regain his composure.

'_Don't panic. Just breathe. We'll figure this out_.' His internal monologue helped calm him enough to finally stand up.

Magnus held him around the middle once again to prevent any subsequent fainting spells. The warlock deposited Alec in a chair and began maneuvering around the kitchen. He set a tea kettle on and placed four pieces of bread in the toaster, waiting for them to pop. The toast sprang up and he grabbed the slices. He pulled the butter out of the fridge and lightly buttered Alec's slices while slathering his. The tea kettle whistled and he took it off the heat. He grabbed a mug and a glass jar containing his special collection of medicinal teas. He carried the plates and tea mug to the table and set them down in front of Alec, who was resting his head on his arms.

"Here darling, try this," Magnus gestured to the toast. Alec rolled his head to the side and grabbed a piece of toast, managing a small bite. He chewed carefully and managed to swallow before placing the piece back on its plate. Magnus sat down and began eating silently.

Once Magnus finished his toast he pulled the tea bag from the mug and set it on his empty plate.

"Come on Alec, drink this."

Alec jutted his chin forward on the table so he could see the mug and pulled it closer to him, finally lifting his head to take a sniff of the tea.

"What is it?"

"It's my special morning sickness blend. It's mostly peppermint tea with just a hint of ginger and fennel. It should help calm your stomach."

Alec began taking tentative sips and alternating bites of toast until he finished both.

"Think that's going to stay down?"

Alec nodded. "Yeah, I think I may be ok. I'm going to lay down on the couch, ok?"

Magnus nodded. "Of course. I'm going to call Catarina and see if we can't get her over here now."

Alec's chair scraped the ground as he stood up and ambled slowly toward the living room area. Magnus once again fished out his phone, this time dialing Catarina.

She picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hi Catarina. What is the soonest you can be here?"

"Um I get off in five minutes. I can be at your place in six. Anything you want me to bring?"

"Yes, and please don't laugh."

Catarina paused, "I'm not you Magnus. I'm actually nice to people."

"Fair enough. Can you bring an ultrasound machine?"

Catarina paused once again. "O...k...I can do that I guess. Add another minute to my travel time to swipe it from the equipment room, ok?"

"Sure thing Cat. I owe you."

She snorted into the phone, "What else is new? See you in a bit."

"Bye," Magnus replied as he hung up the phone. He went to the couch where Alec was already asleep and sat down by the Shadowhunter's feet, waiting.

Exactly seven minutes later Magnus heard a knock on his door. He got up slowly so as not to disturb Alec and opened the door. Catarina was blue as ever and wearing green scrubs with kittens printed on them, carting a portable ultrasound machine with her.

"Come on in. The patient is on the couch," Magnus said as he gestured the other warlock inside.

Catarina wheeled the cart into the apartment and stopped in front of Alec.

"Jeez Magnus, you told me he was sick but I didn't know he was this sick. He looks awful."

"I can hear you, you know," Alec piped up, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Sorry hun, no offense meant. I'm just saying you look ill."

"Thanks. I feel so much better," Alec said as he cracked one eye open.

Magnus joined them in front of the couch. "Shall we get started?"

"Yes, let's."

Catarina listened carefully as Magnus filled her in on the events of the past six weeks, right up to the point where the positive pregnancy test occurred. The warlock did her best not to interrupt and tried very hard to keep an open mind. She watched as Alec fiddled with the fabric of the couch, the edge of his sleeve, and half of his nails as the story was told. He never made eye contact with her once.

"So wait, let me get this straight. You think your father impregnated Alexander? Successfully?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying Cat. We need to figure this out as soon as possible. That's why I asked for the ultrasound."

Catarina leaned back in her chair, flabbergasted. Her eyes darted between the two men on the couch as she tried to sort out her thoughts.

In the end, it was the resigned look on Alec's face that made her stay.

"Ok, first things first. Alec I will need to collect some blood and urine samples so we can take a look at your hormones and get confirmation of a...pregnancy, ok?"

Alec nodded as Catarina snapped her fingers and handed a cup to the Shadowhunter.

"Get started, stop, then go in the cup," the warlock watched as Alec retreated to the bathroom before pulling a blood collection tube, needle and tourniquet from one of the pockets in her scrubs. Magnus raised an eyebrow. "What? It pays to be prepared."

Magnus shook his head. "You scare me sometimes."

"What, is the big bad High Warlock of Brooklyn afraid of needles?"

"No, I'm just concerned about why you carry needles around with you wherever you go. Are you planning to stab any tweekers who get too close to you on your way back from work? I hear you should go for the jugular."

Catarina grabbed some paper towels from the kitchen and set them down on the dining table. "Haha very funny. Come up with that all by yourself?"

"You know I did. I am nothing if not witty."

Catarina snorted, "Right. Mr. Witty himself. For your information, I'm running around with stolen hospital supplies because you said you didn't know what was making Alec sick. The easiest way to get any idea is to go for the blood."

Alec returned and handed the urinalysis cup to Cat, who frowned.

"Dehydrated much?"

"I haven't been able to keep much down the past couple days. It hasn't been for lack of trying."

The warlock nodded and snapped her fingers, the cup disappearing. "Fair enough. I just sent that off to the lab. I have a warlock friend who has been told to be on standby for all the lab testing we'll be running today. She knows what to expect and not to ask questions. You ready for that blood draw?"

Alec nodded and sat in the chair Cat gestured to. She ran off to wash her hands, struggling with a pair of gloves as she returned. "These damn things. I hate how they cling after you wash up. Ok, hand me your left arm."

Alec did as he was told and extended his arm. Catarina pulled an alcohol swab out of a different pocket and swiped it across Alec's elbow crease. She palpated for a vein and tied the tourniquet. Once the vein began to show more visibly she uncapped the needle and plunged it into the Shadowhunter's arm. She attached the tube and waited for it to fill with enough blood. Once she was satisfied she undid the tourniquet, pulled out the tube and removed the needle. She pressed a cotton ball over the drop of blood and recapped the needle. Once again she snapped her fingers and the tube of blood disappeared. She quickly scribbled something down on a piece of paper before lighting it on fire with her magic.

She pulled back the cotton and placed a Bandaid with little hearts on it over the vein. "All done. See that wasn't so bad, right?"

Alec just pulled his arm back and stared blankly back at Cat. "What did you send off?"

"Oh it was just instructions for what tests I want run. You know, hCG, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, the like. Plus I want to know if you're spilling ketones since you've been so sick."

"Oh. Right."

Catarina paused and looked at Magnus who had been hovering like a bat the whole time. "Sweetie, do you know what any of the things I just said are?"

Alec sighed. "I know what estrogen and testosterone are and I've heard of ketones and progesterone, but I've literally never heard of hCG."

The warlock chuckled quietly.

Alec stared at Catarina levelly. "So you think this is hilarious because I'm about to get a crash course in what it means to be a woman?"

"No. I don't think this is funny at all, it's just a nervous habit. I can't deny that it's totally bizarre that the gay male Shadowhunter who should have had the least pregnancy concerns is now, possibly, pregnant himself. But this is definitely not funny. Ready to receive that crash-course education?"

The Shadowhunter begrudgingly nodded.

"Ok, you know that testosterone creates secondary sex characteristics in males and estrogen does the same for females. Did you know that both males and females have both of those hormones?"

Alec nodded again.

"Good. Progesterone is a predominantly female hormone and is responsible for regulating the lining of the uterus and subsequent pregnancy. With me so far?"

"Yeah, I think so." Alec folded his arms as Magnus pulled up a chair.

"So the next thing you need to know is hCG. It stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and is the hormone produced during pregnancy that is used to confirm any pregnancy. The amount of this hormone also relates to whether or not the pregnancy is ectopic, or not in the uterus. Last I checked, you don't have one of those so if you are pregnant I would expect hCG levels to be low. Then again, I have no idea what the hell is going on here."

"Welcome to the club," Magnus said as he grasped Alec's hand.

Catarina shook her head. "Let's let the madness continue, shall we? Alec, lay down on the couch so we can do that ultrasound."

The Shadowhunter wordlessly stood, retracting his hand from Magnus, and walked to the couch. He sat down and waited for the warlocks to join him, dragging the kitchen chairs behind them.

"Alright, shirt off buttercup," Catarina said as she plugged in the machine and pulled up the screen.

Alec obliged and laid down, resting one hand behind his head as he watched Catarina fiddle with the ultrasound. Magnus settled into his chair and folded his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees, pressing his laced fingers to his lips.

"This will be cold," Cat said as she squirted a tube of what could only be described as freezing blue goo onto Alec's abdomen. Alec sharply inhaled and gave an involuntary shudder as the warlock spread the gel with the ultrasound head. "Alright, let's see what's going on here." Cat turned the screen on and watched the fuzzy grey images as they moved. "That is your liver and gallbladder...no stones there...let's see, here's your stomach and, going across here your spleen...those look normal..." She continued to move the ultrasound head around and mutter.

Alec was unable to make much sense of what she was describing on the screen.

"Ok, and here is part of your large intestine...and your aorta, nothing looks like it's going to rupture there...and the small intestines...and...oh my."

Magnus and Alec leaned in closer to the screen as Cat covered her mouth with her free hand, keeping the one on the wand moving slightly.

"What is it Cat?" Magnus asked softly.

"It's...a heart. You have a fetal heart over your small intestines." Cat clicked a button on the screen and took a screen shot of what she was looking at. "And if we follow this back..." she continued moving the wand toward Alec's right side, "...we can see a placenta. It appears to have hooked into the vascular arcades that supply the jejunum." She took another screen shot of, apparently, the placenta. Neither Alec nor Magnus could really make heads nor tails of what they were looking at.

"Alec, I'm so sorry," Cat turned the ultrasound to the home screen and turned to Alec, her eyes shining brightly. "It appears you are, in fact, pregnant."

Magnus dropped his head into his hands, rocking back and forth, back and forth.

Alec blinked slowly at Catarina and inhaled deeply. "Ok, what next?"

A look of shock briefly flitted across the female warlock's face before she cleared her throat. "Well I guess we wait until your test results get in. They should be done within the hour. We can discuss your options once we get more information."

Alec nodded. "Ok, sounds good."

"_Sounds good_? How are you so _calm_ about this?" Magnus finally looked up from his hands, his eyes wild.

"We don't even have all the variables yet Magnus. Wait a minute before you freak out," Alec said as Catarina started wiping the gel off both the Shadowhunter and the ultrasound head. Alec reached for his fiancee's hand and squeezed gently. "We'll figure this out, ok?"

Magnus took a deep breath and willed his panic to go away. "Ok. Wait to freak out until we know everything. I can do that."

Catarina shook her head at the exchange in front of her as she snapped her fingers, causing the ultrasound machine to disappear. She snapped her fingers again producing a clear plastic bag with tubing attached to one end.

"Hey Maggie, got anything we can suspend this from?" Catarina smiled sweetly as Magnus gestured to the coat rack situated by the door. The blue warlock left the couch and began pulling various jackets off the four-pronged wooden coat rack and returned to the boys. She strung up the IV bag using one of her own shoelaces and uncapped yet another needle, this one connected to the tube. "Here, you can put your shirt back on and roll up your sleeve. This ought to help with your dehydration problem."

Alec nodded and pulled the shirt over his head as Cat set about hooking him up to the IV. "Thank you Catarina."

"You are most welcome, my dear Shadow- oh!" Cat startled slightly when the fire message appeared out of thin air. The warlock-nurse unrolled the papers, reading the test results quickly. Catarina had seen some strange things in her long life, but this was one of the strangest. She took a deep breath to steady herself. "Congratulations, we have a confirmation of pregnancy. Your hCG levels are at the same level as a non-ectopic pregnancy, so there's that. Your estrogen and progesterone levels are elevated, but your testosterone is slightly low. That may raise as the pregnancy progresses along with the levels of everything else. It says here that you are spilling ketones in your urine, but the IV should help with that. Other than that, everything appears normal."

Cat kept her face neutral as Alec sighed, still holding Magnus's hand. The cat-eyed warlock looked slightly stricken.

"Ok. What's next?" The Shadowhunter spoke calmly as he resigned himself to the facts presented to him.

"What do you mean what's next? We have to terminate this pregnancy. You're a Shadowhunter and Asmodeus is a demon. This child, which you cannot deliver naturally, will be stillborn. You know that." For the second time this visit, Cat felt a look of pity flit across her face as she spoke.

Alec shook his head and drew his hand to his abdomen. "No, you don't understand. Asmodeus said that he 'fixed the problem Shadowhunters and demons have with this sort of thing'. He used a bastardized angelic rune to do this to me."

"Alec there's no way-"

"There is a way. Maybe you haven't seen the power of Greater Demons when they use these mixed-up runes to manipulate Shadowhunters, but I have. Lilith got to Jace after the removal of his Voyance rune and Asmodeus got to me...well he got to me. And I don't care anyway. Even if this doesn't work I owe it to every warlock I've ever met to at least try. I know the risks, I'm ready to take them."

Catarina and Magnus stared at Alec in shock, no one making a move for a minute following the Shadowhunter's speech. Magnus recovered first, shaking himself and clearing his throat. "Well ok then, what's next?"

Cat collapsed in a chair and groaned.

Isabelle stepped out of the shower and quickly grabbed a towel. She stared at the mirror as she dried off her hair and began pulling on clean clothes. This morning's training session had been somewhat half-hearted due to the lack of Alec's presence, yet she still managed to sweat her ass off as Jace insisted on circuit training today.

She was just running a comb through her dark hair as a certain pint-sized terror threw open the bathroom door, steam escaping the small space as Clary walked in.

"Can you believe him? What with everything going on with Alec I can't believe he would torture us like that! What has gotten into him?"

Isabelle sighed as she prepared herself to make the practically required joke. "Clary, it's more like what isn't he getting _into_. Please tell me you've noticed that both of you are extra cranky since you stopped giving up the goods."

Clary huffed and crossed her arms as she sat on the closed lid of the toilet. "You're blaming me for Jace acting like a tyrannical overlord? What about all that stuff about using your feminine charms as you see fit?"

Isabelle padded over the tile with her bare feet until she stood in front of Clary and rested her hand on the other girl's shoulder. "I meant what I said, but every once in a while you need to _take one for the team,_ so to speak. Please, for the Angel's love, please sleep with Jace. You'll both feel better after. Trust me, I've had enough hate sex to know." She flashed Clary a winning smile and dropped her hand. "I'll even help get mom out of the Institute for you, if you want."

Clary shook her head as her shoulders slumped in defeat. "No it's fine. We can just keep sneaking into the greenhouse. I'm pretty sure Jace and I are the only ones who go in there anymore."

Izzy was surprised to find that she needed to blink several times to stop her eyes from watering at the oblique reference to Hodge. She cleared her throat, hoping against hope that Clary did not pick up on the uncharacteristic show of emotion.

Unfortunately Clary's look of concern told her she was not so lucky.

"Izzy, is everything ok?"

Isabelle didn't know how to answer the question.

Alec looked at the clock and realized that a normal person would want lunch at this hour. He was still grateful that his breakfast had not made a return visit, so he decided not to push it and closed the refrigerator door. He walked over to the couch and sat down next to Magnus who had poured himself a stiff drink and was staring off into space. Alec reached over and pecked him on the temple, which seemed to rouse the warlock slightly from his stupor.

"Are you ok?" Alec asked as he intertwined their fingers.

Magnus nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to tell your family and not have them freak out."

Alec leaned against Magnus's shoulder and tucked his legs up as best he could. "I think we should do it today. They're really worried and I think their imaginations will be worse than the truth."

"I don't know babe, this may be the most high-risk pregnancy in all of human history. This could easily kill you with very little warning."

Alec lifted his head up and furrowed his brows, "Are you saying I made the wrong decision in keeping it?"

Magnus turned to face Alec and drew his hand away, raising both hands in a gesture of surrender. "No, no that's not what I'm saying. I respect your decision, it's just that I want you to realize that this is a highly dangerous situation. That just because we know what's wrong and it's not some bizarre, demonic disease doesn't mean you will actually calm them down when you tell them."

Alec sighed and sat back slightly, "I know, it's just that I can at least take the fear of the unknown out of the way. That's all. I get that this is extremely dangerous, and not just physically. If the Clave were to find out...or maybe even some Downworlders, I don't know, this could be a disaster. I get it, but despite all that I want to try. Does that make sense?"

Magnus slowly blinked his eyes, much like a cat, before answering. "I still think you have this slightly misguided sense of duty to this child, but I will stand by you no matter what. Ok? My opinion doesn't really matter in this situation. I love you. I'll love you forever. I meant it when I said it."

Tears brimmed in Alec's eyes as he smiled at Magnus and took both of his hands in his own.

"Damn pregnancy hormones," Alec said as he laughed through the tears.

"I get the feeling this is not the last time you'll say that."

"I know."

Magnus stood up and pulled Alec with him. "Come on, let's tell your mom she's going to be a grandmother."

Robert walked through the front door of the Institute without knocking. It felt odd to be walking through the halls that had once been home to him as though he were unwelcome without officially declaring himself a stranger by knocking. He walked carefully toward the library, looking around each corner for any signs of his ex-wife or children.

"What are you doing?"

Robert jumped slightly as Isabelle popped out from behind a decorative plant.

"Nothing, I'm just..."

"Skulking around like a creeper?" Isabelle folded her arms and raised one eyebrow.

"No, actually I'm here on official Clave business. Where's your mother?"

Izzy sighed, "She's in the kitchen. I think she's trying to teach Jace to cook. She gave up on me last week."

"Got it. Thank you Isabelle."

"Oh, I'm coming with you. No way important secret Clave business goes on without me knowing about it." Isabelle turned and started walking toward the kitchen, Robert following close on her heels.

"It's nothing you don't already know about. The Consul sent me to check up on the reports we've been getting about the local faerie population getting into trouble. I'm sure you've noticed-"

"All the illegal activity? Yeah, I think mundanes are starting to get suspicious. We're lucky they all seem to be chalking it up to normal New York weirdness."

The hulking Shadowhunter nodded as they entered the kitchen. Maryse and Jace were scrutinizing the contents of a large stock pot as Isabelle hopped onto a stool, letting her heel clad feet dangle.

Maryse looked up first. "Oh hi Robert. I wasn't expecting you so soon."

Robert shrugged. "Consul Penhallow seemed to think the matter at hand was of utmost importance, so she sent me on my way as quickly as she could kick me out of her office."

Jace joined Isabelle at the kitchen island and leaned on his elbows, staring at Robert intently.

"So how long will you be in New York?" Jace asked as he drummed his nails on the counter.

"As long as it takes to sort out the problem," Robert replied. "Based on all the other faerie issues we've been seeing worldwide, this could take a while. Is that going to be okay with all of you?"

Jace, Isabelle and Maryse exchanged looks. "It's fine with me, Robert. I just don't know how Alec...he's been going through a lot lately."

"What do you mean?"

Maryse sighed, "Sit down. We have to talk."

Izzy and Jace looked away.

"I don't think I can do this," Alec said as he walked up to the door of the Institute.

"Alec, come on. We came all this way here, it's too late to back out now. Besides, we'll have to tell them sooner or later. If you keep the baby-"

"I _am_ keeping the baby," Alec snapped.

"Fine. Since you _are_ keeping the baby, you will start to show at some point and we will be worse off. Now, are you going to let us in or will I have to ring the bell?"

Alec set his lips in a grimace and opened the large front doors of the Institute. The pair stepped inside and Magnus closed the doors behind them. Alec sniffed the air and coughed, burying his mouth in the crook of his arm.

"Mom's cooking tomato soup. I guess the kitchen would be a good place to start."

Magnus inhaled deeply through his nose as they walked down the halls. "I literally smell nothing but the wood in this place. Sounds like those super powers are coming in. If this keeps up I may have to step down as the warlock in this relationship."

Alec lightly punched his fiancee in the arm. Magnus winced.

"Knock it off with the pregnancy jokes. I am trying to figure out how to break the news-"

Magnus almost ran into Alec as the Shadowhunter came to a dead stop in front of him.

"What-?"

"My father is here," Alec whispered as Robert's voice carried down the hallway, too low to make out the actual words. Magnus grabbed Alec's hand and lightly kissed the back of it.

"You can do this. This is good, you'll only have to explain it once."

Alec took a deep breath and stepped into the kitchen, still clutching Magnus's hand.

Jace looked up as his _parabatai_ and his fiancee entered the kitchen and saw Robert and Maryse freeze in place.

"H-hi everyone," Alec stuttered out, "Did I interrupt something?"

"Hi, hey, um Alec. How are you? Are you ok?" Robert said as he clenched and unclenched his fists in a nervous way.

Alec's eyes locked with Jace's containing a look of unadulterated anger.

"What?" Jace returned Alec's look with one of confusion.

"You _told_ him?"

"Hey, don't look at me! I had nothing to do with it," Jace said as he pointed to Maryse.

"Mom? You told him?" Alec asked incredulously.

Maryse blinked slowly before answering. "I did what I had to. I couldn't let him walk in here without knowing. Besides, you've had weeks to tell him and you decided not to."

Jace watched curiously as Alec clenched his fists, much like his father, until Magnus whispered something in his ear. Alec took a deep breath and let his fingers extend, looking at the ground all the while.

"Fine. It's...I'm fine, Dad. I have to tell you guys something anyway."

"Oooh, what? Any wedding details?" Clary asked as she came bounding into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of bread, Simon trailing in behind her. Jace reached over and kissed Clary on the cheek and placed his arm around his girlfriend before setting his gold eyes back on his _parabatai_, noting that Alec had paled slightly.

"Are you ok?" Jace asked.

"I'm fine Jace. How many times do I have to say that?"

"Until it's true," Jace countered.

"Alec, have you lost weight?" Izzy asked.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you about! Would you all just stop pestering me and let me speak?"

Everyone went silent.

"Thank you. Um," Alec looked back at Magnus who nodded encouragingly. "You see, I've been really sick lately. We think it has something to do with the 'accommodate' rune I had. Um, Clary have you been able to figure anything else out about the rune?"

Clary finished chewing and cleared her throat. "The only other thing I could tell you about the rune is that it was not entirely angelic. I couldn't properly read it, so I know I missed some information. Why, what happened?"

"It would seem the rune made me accommodate another living thing. That is, as far as we could tell with Catarina's confirmation, that I appear to be, um, pregnant."

Jace looked around and met Simon's confused look, mirroring his own, before Isabelle snorted.

"What? There's no way my big brother is pregnant. That is so impossible and wrong on so many levels I can't...it's just...no way. Magnus, what's really going on?"

Magnus pulled two rectangular pieces of paper out of his pocket and threw them on the counter.

"The one on the right is the sonogram and the one on the left is blood test results. Cat and I did the diagnostics ourselves. I had noticed an extra heartbeat trying to figure out why Alec couldn't stop vomiting. I'm afraid my father knew exactly what he was doing."

Clary, Simon, Maryse, Robert, and Isabelle crowded around the counter. Jace just watched Alec as he pulled a stool toward himself and sank down into it.

"So that circular thing there is the heart? What- I mean how...he doesn't have a uterus. How is he carrying a baby?" Simon asked Magnus.

"There is literal magic at play here, Simon. All the rules go out the window," Clary said, surprisingly calmly. "How far along...wait, like six weeks? So he's due a month after my mother."

"Actually, probably right around the same time as your mom. Neither Cat nor I think he can go full term..."

Jace walked away and stood in front of his _parabatai_, causing Alec to look up.

"Don't you have a million questions too?" Alec asked defensively.

"Just one. How can I help you?"

Alec's eyes widened as a hush fell over the room. "I guess...I just want your support. All of you. I plan to go through with this, see if Asmodeus' magic can let this child live. I know it's risky and I know it's a long shot, but I have to try."

"There you said 'have to'. Is this really what you want?" Isabelle asked softly.

"I want what is best for this child," Alec answered simply.

"No, absolutely not."

Every head turned as Robert spoke for the first time in several minutes.

"Excuse me?" Alec asked.

"You are not doing this. You need to get rid of that...abomination. I forbid to go through with this nonsense."

"Well it's not really up to you, is it? I'm an adult and I don't need your permission," Alec countered as he stood and walked toward Robert.

"Alexander Gideon Lightwood, you cannot do this. You are physically incapable. Just because you want this child does not mean you can defy all the laws of the Clave to have it!"

Alec froze, looking shocked. He clenched his jaw as redness creeped up his neck and face, a sign Jace knew meant he was trying not to cry.

"You...you think I _want_ this? Like I asked for it or wished it? HOW COULD YOU!"

Robert backed up a step. "Hold on a minute-"

"No, _you_ hold up. You think I want a daily reminder of what happened to me? You think I am ready to raise a child? Especially a potential warlock? It's only because of people like me, people willing to go through it, that warlocks even exist, but I am only nineteen! We're not even going to talk about what this will do to my body. As you all pointed out, I can't physically do this! I need surgery to have this kid and that's if I manage to survive this pregnancy in the first place! This could kill me! And, to top it all off, it's illegal! Angel only knows what would happen if the Clave or anyone else in the Downworld found out about this!" Alec was breathing heavily, his hands shaking at his sides. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go hit something," he said as he turned quickly and strode out of the kitchen.

The rest of the group stood still, shocked at Alec's uncharacteristic outburst and abrupt departure.

It was Izzy who broke the awkward silence.

"Hey Dad, do you just come up with this stuff on the spot or do you have a whole book of the exact wrong things to say to Alec? Cuz I'm starting to think you plan this sort of thing."

"Isabelle, I-"

"Enough."

All heads turned as Maryse, silent up to this point, spoke. "We need to talk. In private. Why don't the rest of you check up on Alexander?"

"Of course Maryse," Magnus stepped toward the door, gesturing, "Shall we Shadowhunters?"

Izzy, Jace, Simon and Clary filed past, followed by Magnus. The group was halfway to the training room when the shouting began.

The group stopped outside the large doors and listened to the sound of Alec's arrows hitting targets as Jace stepped in front of the group.

"Let me talk to him first. I think there's more to this than he's letting on, and I think a large group will scare him."

"Why couldn't it be me talking to him?" Magnus asked, crossing his arms.

"It's just...something's wrong with Alec. I can feel it," Jace said as he rubbed the spot where his _parabatai_ rune was located.

Magnus pressed his lips together in a thin line. "Fine, but we'll be listening."

"Here, I've got this," Clary said as she started drawing a rune on the door. Jace nodded and opened the other door, shutting it quietly behind him.

Alec was rapidly firing arrows at targets 100 feet away with his eyes closed, a form of practice Alec had perfected by age 13.

Jace walked quietly up behind Alec and placed a hand on his shoulder. Alec's eyes snapped open and he spun around wildly, almost clocking Jace in the head with his bow.

"Don't sneak up on me like that; I could have killed you!" Alec yelled as he lowered his weapon.

"But you didn't," Jace said as he flashed his best smile.

"What were you thinking? Seriously, I had my eyes closed and everything," Alec said, exasperated as he laid the bow and arrow on the ground.

Jace paused. "I was thinking that my _parabatai_ needed me and that I should shock him out of his bad mood. It worked didn't it?"

"No Jace. You just added 'possible heart condition' to the long list of things that are wrong with me at the moment." Alec sat down heavily on one of the mats lining the floor.

"I'm sorry Alec. I truly am. You know I can be a bit off-putting when I'm concerned about the people I care about most," Jace said as he sat down next to Alec. "And I am really concerned about you."

Alec huffed out a dry chuckle, "About what, exactly?"

"About the fact that my best friend in the world is pregnant with some monster's baby. About the fact that we've been more distant than ever before. Maybe, just maybe, about the fact that there is more to this story than you're letting on. I know you Alec, and I can tell when you're hurting. Please, just tell me what's going on."

The redness creeped back up Alec's neck as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. "It's nothing Jace. I'm just coming to terms with everything. That's-"

"Don't say 'that's all'. You only say that when you lie. Now we can do this the easy way or the way where I get Clary to draw runes on you until we get one that makes you spill your guts."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh I would, at least since you started keeping big things from me," Jace said as he put his hand on Alec's shoulder. "Especially things big enough to warrant tears from you. I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've seen you cry, and I've known you since you were 11 years old."

"Jace, I can't."

"Fine, then at least tell me why you want to keep this baby. I know it's not because you always wanted to be a mother."

A tear streaked down Alec's face.

"Angel, Alec what is going on?" Jace asked, putting his free hand on Alec's other shoulder. "Just tell me, please. No judgement."

Alec let out a shaky breath before answering.

"This baby saved me, Jace."

Jace blinked slowly, his face cautious. "Okay, explain further please."

Alec angrily swiped at his face as more tears cascaded down.

"I wasn't doing so well after...everything. I felt like I could never escape. I was so embarrassed, Jace. I couldn't get it out of my head. I felt like such a failure, like I should have done more to prevent it. I would lie in bed and my mind would race with all the possible ways I could have gotten away, could've stopped him. If by some miracle I managed to sleep I was plagued with dreams, nightmares...it was everywhere. I was crushed by the thought that there was no way I could just go back to the way things were, that now everyone would always look at me differently and remind me. How are you supposed to get over something like this, you know?"

"Alec, you're scaring me. What is going on?" Jace interjected as he squeezed Alec's shoulders tighter.

"Jace I wanted to...I just wanted relief. I was really thinking about ending it all. I wanted to take my own life."

Alec hung his head as Jace's eyes widened.

"Alec, no..."

"Jace, don't. I never went through with it. I know it was selfish to think about it in the first place, ok? I hesitated every time because of the people I love. You and Magnus and Izzy and Clary and even Simon and mom- I always hesitated, but the problem was still there. The need to escape somehow was always there, until..."

"Until you found out you were pregnant. By a demon. With a warlock baby that might still be a stillborn. What. The. Fuck, Alec. What the actual fuck?"

"I know, I know. You said no judgement, remember?"

"Right, sorry. I'm sorry Alec," Jace said as he looked at his miserable _parabatai_. "You know you didn't have to go through this alone, right? That we were always here for you and wanted you to come to us?" Jace stood up and pulled Alec upright with him.

"I know, but...I'm just so _ashamed_."

A sob escaped and Alec clamped his sleeve-covered hand over his mouth in a stifling gesture. Jace reached his arms around his _parabatai_ and hugged him tightly.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of Alec, and if I ever see that demon again I will kill him in the most violent way I can think of, ok? You are one of the bravest, kindest people I know and this does nothing but reinforce that."

Sobs continued to wrack Alec's body as Jace held him.

"Shh, it's ok. I've got you, it's ok."

"It's these stupid pregnancy hormones, Jace. I keep going to pieces over nothing," he choked out, attempting to get ahold of himself.

Jace looked over Alec's shoulder to see the rest of the group headed toward them.

"Ah, here comes the Cavalry."

Alec straightened up and let go of Jace, turning his face away as everyone joined them in the training room.

"Don't bother trying to hide. We saw and heard the whole thing," Isabelle said.

"Perfect," Alec said, using both hands to try and clean off his face, "it's not like anyone could ever get any privacy around here."

"Don't start with me. You seriously considered _suicide_?"

"Not that seriously, Iz."

"I would hit you right now, but seeing as you're in a delicate state I'll just settle for hitting your boyfriend!"

Izzy slapped Magnus on the arm. "How could you not notice! What is wrong with you?" Izzy yelled as she continued raining down blows on Magnus's arm.

"Ow! Izzy!" Magnus yelled back as Clary clamped her arms around Izzy to stop her assault on the warlock.

"Izzy, what has gotten into you?" Clary asked as Isabelle calmed down slightly.

"My brother is talking about killing himself and you're asking what's wrong with me?" Isabelle yelled back.

"Well yeah, you just called Magnus Alec's boyfriend. They've been engaged for a while...it's unlike you," Clary replied back, not letting go of Izzy.

Isabelle took a deep breath and stilled. "It's nothing, I'm just overreacting. You can let go of me now."

Clary did so, hesitantly.

"Sorry about all that. Simon, will you take a walk with me?"

Simon looked up from his shoes and scrunched his eyebrows in a look of confusion. "Sure. Um, yeah we'll see you guys in a bit," he said as Isabelle grabbed his hand and dragged him from the room.

"Right, well I'm sure you two have lots to talk about...Jace?" Clary asked.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go check on my soup," Jace answered as he and Clary walked out, leaving Alec and Magnus alone amongst the weapons.

"I'm so sorry Magnus."

"Sorry for what?"

"That I didn't just tell you what was going on. I was..."

"Let me guess. You didn't tell me for the same reason you told Jace."

Alec sighed. "Yeah. I know it's stupid."

Magnus tutted. "Just like every Shadowhunter I've ever dealt with. You all have a rather irritating need to suffer in silence instead of asking for help. It must be genetic."

Alec shrugged. "Possibly. Are you mad?"

"No, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. I thought we were beyond such pedestrian things like 'shame' and 'embarrassment'. Angel knows we've seen each other all kinds of indisposed by this point."

Alec cracked a slight smile at Magnus's use of the Shadowhunter phrase. "It's just that you've all been treating me like I'm made of spun sugar since the incident. I didn't want to validate that concern with such a pathetic display of weakness."

Magnus reached his arm around Alec and pulled him to his side, slowly walking them out of the training room.

"Stop thinking in such black and white terms. You had a moment of weakness. That does not make you inherently weak. It can happen to anyone, especially when they are as sick as you have been. Just put it from your mind."

"Fine. Can I go lay down? I feel rotten."

Magnus leaned over and planted a kiss on top of the Shadowhunter's head. "Sure thing, love. Your old room?"

"Yeah. This way you can go back to the apartment and take care of your clients. And the cat. I hope he's ok."

"Since when do you worry about the Chairman?"

Alec shrugged as they entered his old bedroom.

"Since I'm about to have a baby I guess."

* * *

So that happened. Please leave a review! They're the only reason I keep going.


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